“I think in terms of the density you gave and those of us that fly across this country a lot – there’s a lot of space here.”
If she would DRIVE across this county, she’d see why people aren’t clamoring to live there.
If she would BUY some of the land across this country, she’d discover people aren’t allowed to live there.
Most of that “lot of space here” is very hard to live on. It’s hot & dry in the summer, and buried in deep snow all winter (and much of spring & fall). It’s a long drive to anywhere, it’s expensive to transport anything there, communications & power networks are sparse, etc ... and that’s not considering the high percentage which is rank wilderness (tall mountains, impassable terrain, parched deserts) nigh unto impossible to live in.
All that aside, vast tracts are owned by the government (!) which isn’t selling, much of that checkerboarded with private property, with much of the latter in logistically inaccessible tracts which you are by law not allowed to build residence on.
Mme. Ex-Secretary, kindly tell your current contemporary to put most of that BLM land up for sale (cheap), revoke the prohibitions on residing on one’s own property, and make ownership thereof contingent on foregoing all gov’t welfare handouts. Just like this nation started: you’re welcome to come in, available land is thataway for cheap, government involvement is no more than ensuring you don’t screw things up for others, and you survive by the sweat of YOUR brow and not that of others’.
BTW: even the very air is hard to breathe in much of that “flyover country”. I recently came back from a week in Colorado, feeling oxygen-deprived much of the time given the high altitudes (elevation 1 mile _minimum_).