&gt;&gt;Isn&#x27;t this article just taking a roundabout way of commenting that landowners in highly productive areas are choking growth and more productivity by siphoning too much money off of the non-landowners for use of the land?<p>Ehhhh... yes, but it&#x27;s contending that the reason landowners are able to do that is the land use regulation that makes the land valuable. So it would be more accurate to say that regulation is choking growth, by handing landowners a bunch of economic rent (unearned profits).