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made in tlong Kong to resettle tnese people, but many did not want to move. They had gotten used to things.
A modern example of having many people in a small space is the use of capsule hotels in Japan. Capsule hotels are slick, clean, and well-appointed plastic sleeping units used by businessmen who have worked or partied too late and have missed trains home. Banked two-high, with each capsule measuring about four feet wide, four feet high, and six feet long, they look like giant microwave ovens. A capsule hotel might have 400 such units. Each capsule has a mattress that covers the bottom of the unit, sheets and a pillow, and appliances such as a color TV, radio, alarm clock, fan, air conditioning, reading light, telephone, etc.
Japanese baths and toilet facilities are down the hall. Vending machines and a lounge are nearby. Everything is cleaned every day. They are all-male hotels. Suffice it to say that the health, safety, morals, order, convenience, and general welfare of each inhabitant of the capsule hotel is very well attended to for an overnight stay.
Out of curiosity, how many such capsule people could fit in Rappahannock County? Let's assume each two-high unit, housing two people, takes 24 square feet on the ground, but add 50 percent more for an outside walking-around area and we have 36 square feet. If you did the math, you would find that you could house over 413,000,000 people in Rappahannock County, much more than the population of the United States. A 15-story building of capsules covering the whole county could house the entire 6 billion population of the world. For one night.
After going to the extremes of population density, let's back off and try to discover what might be the crossover point where Rappahannock County might have too many people.
How can this be done? Much depends on the economic base of the county. If it were a high-tech county, or striving to be a high-tech county, then the population (according to July 1,1999, U.S.Census Bureau figures) might be like that of Arlington (174,848), Fairfax (945,717), Loudoun (156,284), or Prince William (270,841) counties. But, Rappahannock County is primarily an agricultural and tourist-oriented economy and apparently intends to stay that way. If farmland starts to be converted to commercial or residential use, the current population will begin to trend upwards markedly.
One way to guess at the crossover point for "too many" people is to take every parcel in the county, including all potential subdivisions, and see what would happen if every lot that could be built on had a dwelling. The answer? At 2.65 people per dwelling, you get about 20,000 people. So we've boxed things in: "too few" might be 5,000 people; "too many" might be 20,000 people. Next time: Goldilocks gears up for "just right."
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