wrote in message
...
On Apr 1, 3:34 am, "Ed Huntress" wrote:



I have almost no faith at all in the states. I agree with James Madison
that
government becomes less competent as its geographic and population scope
become smaller. If they weren't propped up by the federal government,
they'd
collapse like so many houses of cards.

And they're much more corrupt. The state governments are mostly either
corrupt as hell, buffoonish, or both.

Of course, my impression is colored by living in one of the leading states
in both corruption and incompetence, g but I think the evidence is very
widespread.



I recall that some studies have been made on the optimum size of
cities. The conclusion was that cities of about 100,000 to 150,000
had the best quality of life.
Big enough to have the hospitals, schools, entertainment, etc, but
with a lower crime rate than larger cities.


Dan

Yeah, I think those studies are dealing mostly with the issues of social
services and their necessary scales; interrelationships of business and
people; and so on. At least, that's the way the subject was analyzed in city
planning studies, 40 years ago, when I last encountered it.

Madison was dealing with the question of how to prevent special interests
from politically exploiting the citizenry as a whole. He was speculating,
but his ideas are interesting. And then he sat down and wrote most of the US
Constitution. d8-)

--
Ed Huntress