A 3-Part Exploration by Harald Neslein Sandø Part 2:
Designed for Scarcity – How the Current System Wastes Space
From artificial lack to regenerative design — why our crisis isn’t population, but prioritization.
We live on a planet overflowing with possibility, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at how we’ve organized it. Scarcity isn’t something nature designed — it’s something we did. And we did it, mostly, to serve a game that revolves around profit, ownership, and control.
While millions sleep unhoused in dense urban pockets, vast tracts of land sit idle — hoarded, speculated on, or simply unused because no one can afford the “right” to access it. Our world isn’t overpopulated. It’s misallocated.
Urban Sprawl vs. Human-Centered Design
Most modern cities are designed like factories: efficiency over empathy. They sprawl outward in disconnected blobs of housing, commerce, and industry — all separated by highways and concrete. People are packed into lifeless apartments while green space is paved over for parking lots. This isn’t the result of necessity. It’s the result of design rooted in profit, not people.
Now imagine if we built for connection, not consumption. Walkable communities. Shared gardens. Efficiently designed homes with tiny ecological footprints and massive social potential. That shift alone could reclaim space and sanity for millions.
Land Ownership: Hoarding by Another Name
Under current systems, land isn’t shared or stewarded — it’s owned. Often by those who don’t need it, don’t live on it, and don’t use it. Massive private estates, unused investment properties, even entire neighborhoods bought up by hedge funds sit empty while others are told there’s “no housing.” In some countries, a small elite controls more land than millions combined.
This isn’t a land shortage. This is a gatekeeping problem. We’ve turned access to Earth itself into a commodity, ignoring the fact that we were all born here — all meant to belong.
Artificial Scarcity: A Feature, Not a Flaw
Capitalism thrives on controlled access. If something is abundant, it has no price tag. So to maintain profit, abundance must be obscured. Whether it’s food, shelter, or land — the more controlled and restricted the supply, the higher the value.
This means planned obsolescence in products, restrictive zoning in cities, and “infinite growth” on a finite planet. It’s not sustainable. It’s deliberately unsustainable. The system must keep you feeling like there’s not enough — so you keep buying, borrowing, competing.
If you’d like to experience life in a world where the system has evolved to honor people, planet, and all living beings, check out the book Waking Up:
Regenerative Alternatives Already Exist
The good news? Other ways of living are already being tested — and they work.
– Eco-villages all over the world show how small, intentional communities can regenerate land, feed themselves, and thrive without waste.
– Permaculture turns even dry, depleted soil into fertile ground using natural patterns and cooperation.
– Projects like The Venus Project offer completely NEW cities based on function, sustainability, and human need — not money.
And they’re not dreams. They’re prototypes. Seeds of a better system growing in the cracks of the old.
🌍 Main Takeaway:
We’re not overpopulated — we’re badly organized.
Our crisis isn’t one of population, but of prioritization.
The Earth is generous. There’s enough land, food, and potential for everyone to live well. What we lack is not space — but a system that values life over leverage. The real scarcity is in our imagination — and in our willingness to rethink what we’ve been told is “normal.” If you yearn to experience a different world than the one we have today with a system like the one described above, you can order he book here:
