There will always be a limit, but we are artificially constraining city populations to tiny fractions of engineering limits, with immense human, environmental, and economic costs.
i agree with your assessment that we are artificially constraining city populations. i feel it's more than just the engineering potential that limits a city's capacity. consider the political climate, the economic environment, the sunk cost by existing home owners, businesses, and city services, the accumulated technical debt of legacy construction practices, artificial boundaries developed by cities to bolster real estate values, and not to mention the accumulated debt of a city like san francisco which the last i read was at $10B. there are a lot of forces at play to gain consensus especially when you have significant momentum moving along a trajectory started easily 30 years ago that lead us to where we are today.
more importantly, it's far easier to create incentives to entice companies with high economic value and high paying jobs to an area with few competitive forces.
more importantly, it's far easier to create incentives to entice companies with high economic value and high paying jobs to an area with few competitive forces.