The Ultimate Resource 2

Julian Lincoln Simon

Princeton University Press, Jul 21, 1998 - Business & Economics - 734 pages

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

• Analytical Contents: 3
• Lipset: 14
• TOWARD OUR BEAUTIFUL RESOURCE FUTURE: 21
• The Amazing Theory of RawMaterial Scarcity: 23
• Will the Future Break with the Past?: 30
• Summary: 37
• Why Are MaterialTechnical Resource Forecasts So Often: 41
• Tables: 43
• Can the Supply of Natural ResourcesEspecially Energy: 54
• The Grand Theory: 73
• Famine 1995? or 2025? or 1975?: 84
• What Are the Limits on Food Production?: 97
• Shortage Crises: 109
• What Next?: 116
• Africa and the CocoaProducing Countries: 124
• Are We Losing Ground?: 127
• Urban Sprawl and Soil Erosion: 139
• Water Wood Wetlandsand What Next?: 151
• When Will We Run Out of Oil? Never: 162
• Todays Energy Issues: 182
• Tomorrows Greatest Energy Opportunity: 203
• A Dying Planet? How the Media Have Scared the Public: 212
• 44: 215
• 51: 221
• The Peculiar Theory of Pollution: 223
• 13: 230
• Whither the History of Pollution?: 233
• Specific Trends and Issues: 241
• Bad Environmental and Resource Scares: 258
• 53: 264
• 67: 270
• Will Our Consumer Wastes Bury Us?: 275
• Should We Conserve Resources for Others Sakes? What Kinds of Resources Need Conservation?: 283
• Conservation of Animals or People?: 292
• Coercive Recycling Forced Conservation and FreeMarket Alternatives: 297
• POPULATION GROWTHS EFFECT UPON OUR RESOURCES AND LIVING STANDARD: 309
• Standing Room Only? The Demographic Facts: 311
• What Will Future Population Growth Be?: 326
• Do Humans Breed Like Flies? Or Like Norwegian Rats?: 342
• Population Growth and the Stock of Capital: 357
• Populations Effects on Technology and Productivity: 367
• Economies of Scope and Education: 391
• Population Growth Natural Resources and Future Generations: 399
• Natural Resources and the Risk of Running Out: 405
• Population Growth and Land: 412
• Are People an Environmental Pollution?: 429
• Are Humans Causing Species Holocaust?: 439
• A Greater Population Does Not Damage Health or Psychological and Social WellBeing: 459
• Population Growth and Living Standards in MDCS: 471
• A More Realistic Model for MDCS: 477
• At the Cost of the Poorer Countries?: 483
• How Immigrants Affect Our Standard of Living: 490
• LDCs: 491
• 34la Population Density and Growth Selected Countries 19501983: 496
• BEYOND THE DATA: 511
• How the Comparisons People Make Affect Their Beliefs about Whether Things Are Getting Better or Worse: 513
• Does the End Justify: 519
• Forces Amplifying the Rhetoric: 527
• Planned Parenthoods Rhetoric: 533
• The Reasoning behind the Rhetoric: 537
• UltimatelyWhat Are Your Values?: 547
• The Key Values: 557
• Conclusion The Ultimate Resource: 578
• Epilogue My Critics and I: 593
• Notes: 617
• References: 653
• Index: 691

About the author

Julian L. Simon, until his death in 1998, was Professor of Business Administration at the University of Maryland and a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute. Among his books are Population and Development in Poor Countries: Selected Essays (Princeton), The Economic Consequences of Immigration to the United States, Population Matters: People, Resources, Environment, and Immigration, and The State of Humanity.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Ultimate Resource 2; Princeton paperbacks : Economics; Princeton paperbacks
• Author: Julian Lincoln Simon
• Edition: illustrated, revised
• Publisher: Princeton University Press, 1998
• ISBN: 0691003815, 9780691003818
• Length: 734 pages
• Subjects: Business & Economics / Economics / General; Business & Economics / Economics / Theory; Business & Economics / Environmental Economics; Nature / Natural Resources; Social Science / Demography