The Ultimate Resource 2 Julian L. Simon.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Simon, Julian Lincoln, 1932-1998.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Population.

Natural resources.

Economic policy.

Genre:

Aufsatzsammlung.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xliii, 734 pages) : illustrations.

Edition:

Rev. ed. / with an appreciation by Milton Friedman.

Manufacture:

Baltimore, Md. : Project MUSE, 2021

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 1998, 1996.

Summary:

Arguing that the ultimate resource is the human imagination coupled to the human spirit, Julian Simon led a vigorous challenge to conventional beliefs about scarcity of energy and natural resources, pollution of the environment, the effects of immigration, and the "perils of overpopulation." The comprehensive data, careful quantitative research, and economic logic contained in the first edition of The Ultimate Resource questioned widely held professional judgments about the threat of overpopulation, and Simon's celebrated bet with Paul Ehrlich about resource prices in the 1980s enhanced the public attention--both pro and con--that greeted this controversial book. Now Princeton University Press presents a revised and expanded edition of The Ultimate Resource. The new volume is thoroughly updated and provides a concise theory for the observed trends: Population growth and increased income put pressure on supplies of resources. This increases prices, which provides opportunity and incentive for innovation. Eventually the innovative responses are so successful that prices end up below what they were before the shortages occurred. The book also tackles timely issues such as the supposed rate of species extinction, the "vanishing farmland crisis," and the wastefulness of coercive recycling. In Simon's view, the key factor in natural and world economic growth is our capacity for the creation of new ideas and contributions to knowledge. The more people alive who can be trained to help solve the problems that confront us, the faster we can remove obstacles, and the greater the economic inheritance we shall bequeath to our descendants. In conjunction with the size of the educated population, the key constraint on human progress is the nature of the economic-political system: talented people need economic freedom and security to bring their talents to fruition.

Contents:

II. POPULATION GROWTH'S EFFECT UPON OUR RESOURCES AND LIVING STANDARDS: Standing room only? the demographic facts

What will future population growth be?

Do humans breed like flies? or like Norwegian rats?

Population growth and the stock of capital

Population's effects on technology and productivity

Economies of scope and education

Population growth, natural resources, and future generations

Population growth and land

Are people an environmental pollution?

Are humans causing species holocaust?

A greater population does not damage health, or psychological and social well-being

The big economic picture: population growth and living standards in MDCs

LDCs

III. BEYOND THE DATA: How the comparisons people make affect their beliefs about whether things are getting better or worse

The rhetoric of population control: does the end justify the means?

The reasoning behind the rhetoric

Ultimately, what are your values?

The key values.

I. TOWARD OUR BEAUTIFUL RESOURCE FUTURE: The amazing theory of raw-material scarcity

Why are material-technical resource forecasts so often wrong?

Can the supply of natural resources, especially energy, really be infinite? Yes!

The grand theory

Famine 1995? or 2025? or 1975?

What are the limits on food production?

The worldwide food situation now: shortage crises, glut crises, and government

Are we losing ground?

Two bogeymen: urban sprawl and soil erosion

Water, wood, wetlands

and what next?

When will we run out of oil? Never!

Today's energy issues

Nuclear power: tomorrow's greatest energy opportunity

A dying planet? how the media have scared the public

The peculiar theory of pollution

Whither the history of pollution?

Pollution today: specific trends & issues

Bad environmental and resource scares

Will our consumer wastes bury us?

Should we conserve resources for others' sakes? What kinds of resources need conservation?

Coercive recycling, forced conservation, and free-market alternatives.

Notes:

Revised edition of: The ultimate resource by Julian L. Simon, published Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 1981.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 653-690) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780691042695

0691042691

9780691214764

069121476X

OCLC:

1162817372