[jimjamuser]

I would like to comment on 2 separate, but related issues brought out in this thread - GROWTH and CRIME.
........Stated in about the 4th paragraph from the end, "Growth is INEVITABLE". Just as some humor........I was taught that ONLY DEATH and TAXES were inevitable. Now to be serious - at a micro level (The Villages growth) may be or seem to be inevitable - I could agree with that. But, at a macro level GROWTH in general depends on the continuing growth of the POPULATION of the US. I often use the term OPTIMAL population growth. For example, does China have the OPTIMAL growth for itself - apparently NOT as is apparent from the CLOUDS of pollution seen over ALL their big cities? America and Americans do NOT want their country to become OVERPOPULATED as China is. In China, right now, their government IS begging its population to have MORE children. And the people are saying NO. Their lives SUCK partly because they have gone PAST their point of OPTIMAL population. THAT is obvious to even myself, an ordinary citizen!
.........So, I put in that 1st paragraph as proof that things turn "and go south" when a population (any population, even Lemmings) exceeds its OPTIMAL NUMBER. Incidentally, that is why NATURE and Lemmings control ANIMAL POPULATIONS the way that it does. Why IS that important, you ask? Because mankind (humans) can fail to follow the laws of NATURE (AND POPULATIONS) for a LIMITED amount of time before things go "haywire". Think about CO2 killing coral reefs and dead spots in the Gulf of MEXICO. And record temperatures in the Gulf last year. And Global Warming that is predicted for the next 8 to 30 years.
........Florida is VERY VULNERABLE to HEAT increases as we saw with Hurricane IAN. Many northern visitors that WOULD buy property in the Villages are turned off by the summer HEAT and the prospects for KILLER hurricanes and tornadoes in the increasing HEAT of the Florida summers. Plus humidity, which is hard on an elderly person's body and health. Many of these people are looking to North and South Carolina as better locations with a temperate climate as opposed to a "HEAT chamber" like Florida!
.........What then is the OPTIMAL population for the US? I would propose that like China, we are PAST that number. 250 MILLION would be my best guess as to the Optimal US population. Note that US women are delaying having children so as to advance their careers. NOW, of course, the US can ALWAYS get migrants (legal or otherwise) because the US is a magnet for that - we are the "Gold Mountain" in their eyes. But, the question is whether large-scale immigration is going to be OPTIMAL from a numbers and EVEN a "changing demographic" basis ?
........The overall POINT IS that there are factors that could mitigate in the future AGAINST the "GROWTH is INEVITABLE" proposition.