[dragnet2]

The jobs and what they produce is a product of people’s willingness to crowd together into small areas and leave vast swaths of the countryside empty.

Incorrect.

The population centers did not come about by accidents, mistakes or the mere willingness of people wanting to crowd together. Population centers basically started around natural harbors, rivers, areas of good soil, good climate etc etc...Jobs naturally follow...The rest is history.

Look at the old gold towns, now ghost towns....Take away economy, resources, opportunity, desirability etc, and you get ghosts towns for the most part.

[Flying Circus]

The population centers did not come about by accidents, mistakes

Incorrect.

Most major cities are accidents of history where had things been just a little different, other locations would have arisen as the city instead of the back waters they turned out to be. Those accidents may be individual leaders, culture, law, war, etc.

There are vastly larger areas that have natural features and resources to support populations than are now occupied by cities. People gravitate toward cities because the cities themselves present resources and opportunities not present in the surrounding small towns and undeveloped areas. People themselves are a resource unlike any other and that is something that the overpopulation crowd never seem to grasp.