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Muh free market is part of it but not in the way you necissarily think. Yes, there is a problem is billions of tax payer dollars being used to build infrastructure for inefficient farming and then also subsidizing the annual crop to the tune of billions, but the cities are an even bigger drain.
The Southwest blew the fuck up since 1970. Changes in US migration law since the 1960s have resulted in a net 60 million more people. No immigration reform and Pew, hardly right wing, estimated the US population at 270 million in 2015. Add in a huge flow of illegal immigrants too that the Reagan, Clinton, and Bush admin tacitly let in because richfags want rents high and wages low. Nor did things change with Trump, just rhetoric. Deportations were below Obama and illegal crossings hit a 13 year high in 2019.
So, you have this boom. It will be the largest wave of migration in US history, eclipsing the prior peak in the early 1900s.
1:8 Americans is foreign born today. 1:4 is either foreign born or has at least one foreign born parent. Left unchanged, that will come close to 1:5 foreign born by 2050.
But it's also the least diverse wave of migration in US history, coming mainly from one region, Central America, speaking one language, and most importantly, settling in one region. This is also a region with water issues.
The free market philosophy says immigrants should go where they want, and they have generally caused soaring populations in the Southwest.
A policy that required then to go to cities with shrinking populations in the Rust Belt would move jobs where they are needed, take massive pressure off home prices (homes in Buffalo were under $100,000 not too long ago), and take massive pressure off the water systems. Canada does this to a degree.
The government should be doing something to actively steer migrants to places that need them and can handle them enviornmentaly. Like, you won't get deported but you have to live near the Great Lakes for 5 years.
