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by Luc 5646 days ago
I'm baffled. Someone even upvoted this. I guess it's performance art!
2 comments

Sorry, that was a fat-fingered downvote that turned into an upvote.
Can I ask you to explain what you mean?
I suspect you are trolling? You made a characterization of the Netherlands that seems to be constructed from randomly chosen and misrepresented facts, misunderstandings, and hand-waving...
I wasn't trolling.

The netherlands has increased its area by an extraordinary 25% by reclaiming land from the sea.

Despite this the netherlands is one of the most densely populated countries on earth.

It has further increased its population by allowing immigration on a large scale, which whatever else its consequences is not going to reduce population density.

Now if you look at a nightime satellite view of Europe, the Netherlands is an uninterrupted patch of light.

I'd rather live in a country where I have the possibility of escaping from my fellow man every once in a while. That's not possible in Holland so I'd rather not live there.

I can, however, see why cycling is popular/necessary there

Use this list from Wikipedia, and order by population density:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_de...

The Netherlands is at the 28th spot, behind countries such as South Korea, Singapore, and Macao. Then compare the densities of e.g. Singapore (7,023 per km^2) and The Netherlands (401 per km^2).

Stating the facts makes it all seem far less dramatic, doesn't it?

"Stating the facts makes it all seem far less dramatic, doesn't it?"

I don't believe that I have stated any fictions if that's what your last remark implies.

I had a look at the wiki page you linked to.

Most of those 27 countries ahead of the Netherlands are negligible in terms of size, vatican City, Guernsey, Monaco, St Martin?

There are some sizeable countries but I don't believe being able to report a population density lower than, say, Bangladesh, is a cause for celebration.

As for living in a country with a population density of over 7000 per sq km, it is not something to be aspired to.

The population density difference between living in the city and living in another place is much larger than between living in the Netherlands vs living in e.g. the US. The range of population densities available in nearly any country is enough for the vast majority of people.
Maybe you are correct. But the trend is in the wrong direction. When look at world population growth there is imo potentially a population tsunami approaching. Maybe my pessimism is unfounded, most people here seem to think it will all turn out rosy