At a crossroads

Literally. We drove from Parkersburg, W.Va. yesterday back to Catherine and Al Renzis' home. After a lovely breakfast this morning catching up with them, we headed to Piscataway, N.J. to have a late Christmas with David's son and daughter-in-law. Then David took me to the Newark airport, where I read about human rights for a few hours then got on a plane.

Back to the crossroads. It's always bothered me that there are five hotels at the intersection of routes 100 and 113 in Chester Springs. That makes no sense to me. There's no way any of them average occupancy above 30% or 40%. How can all five of them remain profitable? Same with intersections with two or three drug stores. Same with big box stores and restaurants. My insight, which could be dead wrong but I'm running with it, is that the operational costs are too low. That is, if employers had to pay a living wage and provide health care and a retirement plan to employees, there'd be only one or two hotels in little Chester Springs, not five. It is so cheap to operate hotels/retail that the threshold is too low to achieve profitability. Which begets a ridiculous amount of overcapacity.

I'd say the same thing about gas. Gas is much cheaper in the U.S. than in the rest of the world. That is why Americans think nothing of driving SUVs. If the gas cost more, people wouldn't have an incentive to make earth-destroying choices.

I always thought zoning laws and greenbelts are why the U.K. doesn't have sprawl, but I also think the inability to hire cheap labor and use cheap gas restrains development.
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