In Colorado we have a problem: there are many, many people who want to live here; and they are flocking in by the drove.
And displacing resident natives in a way somewhat akin (though certainly less dramatic or violent) than the displacement of native nations as the US expanded: We Want to Live Here; You Must Get Out.
We need to decide if we, as a society, value ethical behavior with each other or only blind economic forces which tend to coagulate power and resources within the hands of a few. Without some level of checks on such concentration, there will never be the mobility potential we believe is part of America. This myth will not support itself indefinitely.
Economic forces are systematic, and thus a simplistic solution (such as the one Aspen attempted several years ago and is in the news today) will necessarily be out-paced and become obsolete. If wages are a function of living costs, and housing prices modulated as a function of of wages, we can create a dynamic system of more reasonable housing prices; not prices that land-owning aristocrats can charge unrealistic and frankly impossible rents from a generation or class of people who have no wealth.
Do we want to price-out our society because of a few wealthy interests uninterested in any concepts of sharing, or do we want to keep the community we have more or less intact. Economic growth cannot be the paradigm of the future: it will only lead to collapse. For we cannot ever grow indefinitely.
