It obviously wouldn't be successful on day one, and it would take some kind of exceptional pressure to jump start it, but these things have been done in the past in the US and have been done recently in China. Not arguing these were good things, but they have happened before.

Think back to the old "company towns". Lowell, Massachusetts, built for a textile mill. Hershey Pennsylvania, built around a chocolate factory. Fordlandia, Brazil, a rubber plantation town. All of these were essentially cities and towns planned out around a central industry.

Similar things happened with the ghost cities in China with several of the big notable ones eventually actually growing into real, functional cities.

Once again, these have all kinds of messy histories and I'm not saying they're all good ideas. But just pointing out, it can be done.

And you proved my point why you can't today.