The Ultimate Resource 2: No. 2 (Paperback)

He hammers home his main argument again and again, so much so that the book is at times a little repetitive (hence the 4-crown (rather than 5-crown) rating). But the argument does need repeating because it is counter-intuitive:- an increasing population ultimately means a higher standard of living for everybody, so long as people are free to manage their lives as they wish, in peace, and under just and democratic government.

Fortunately, he presents mountains of facts to back up his case; in so doing, he demonstrates that the environmental "doomsters", or "doomsayers" (as he calls them), have been consistently wrong in their predictions, over any time-scale longer than a decade. For example, India is now self-sufficient in food; yet Erlich, in The Population Bomb, predicted that it would become so hopeless to try to feed India that the country should just be left to perish unaided.

Do read this book; you will be jolted out of conformist thinking, and pleasantly surprised into the bargain.

In this book, Julian Simon shows that everything the environmentalists have been saying is wrong.

First, in the past century, the quality of the environment has gotten better. For example, the pollution that comes from automobiles today is less dangerous than the infectious disease that was spread by horse waste 100 years ago. Secondly, economic growth and technology make is easier to develop, and pay for, newer, cleaner technologies to keep the environment clean. Third, private property rights, private ownership, free markets, and capitalism are the best way to take care of the environment.

Most environmentalists are left wing socialist types who are in favor of massive increases in the size of government. Of course, these environmentalists comletely ignore the fact that Eastern Europe, after 50 years of having no private property rights whatsoever, became the most polluted area that the world has ever had.

During colonial days in America, buffalo, which were onwed by nobody, were nearly hunted to extinction. But today, cattle, which are privately owned, are not in danger of going extinct. When property is privately owned, the owner will take good care of it.

In a free market economy, prices are constantly changing. This gives consumers, and producers, all of the necessary information that they need, in order to determine how to best use resources. For example, whenever there's a big freeze in Florida, the price or oranges goes up. This is why we never have shortages of oranges. This is an example of the free market in action.

If you are an environmentalist, then you will hate this book.

If you beleive in rational, logical thinking, then you will love this book.

In economics we are posed problems, especially by population growth. But the price system then puts a bounty on their solution & we not only then solve them but overcompensate & thus make great progress. The sole reason we now have computers is owing to having reached higher population levels. Human beings are the ultimate resource. Most of us leave a positive legacy that will consistute a greater cultral achievement as a result & this will be more wealth for all to enjoy. As Ray Percival said, the legacy of people, especially in their ideas, results in a truism that many might today take as a paradox viz. "the more people there are the easier it is to feed them". But those born later get everything easier, not only food. This is the result of population growth.

Take any part of the world, things will usually be easier & better in the mass urban areas. Thus, in the UK, there is more of all things in London than in Birmingham, but more in Birmingham than in Coventry, but more in Coventry than in Nuneation, & so on, down to a villege with not much in it by comparison. The people will be better off in a hundred years time just owing to this legacy from more & more people.

It seems to be clear that the next three hundred years are going to bear Simon's outlook out as well as the last three hundred. I have read the superficial reviews by the biologist, & others, & noted that many, for some reason, found them helpful. I found them utterly wrongheaded & almost completely thoughtless.

This book shows that Carlye ered badly when he said that economics was "the dismal science". The book is a great joy.