This century-spanning collection of essays traces the diverse intellectual history of population economics. Arranged to illustrate the evolution of thought in the field, with its many shifts and changes, the volume gathers varied writings from foremost influential economic theorists.
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Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Julian L. Simon (1932-1998) was professor of business administration at the University of Maryland and distinguished senior fellow of the Cato Institute. He is credited as being one of the founders of free-market environmentalism. His books include Hoodwinking the Nation, The Philosophy and Practice of Resampling Statistics, and The Ultimate Resource.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Julian Simon demonstrates that people are not cockroaches,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Economics of Population: Key Classic Writings (Hardcover)
If people were cockroaches they would have over-populated the planet and starved themselves out - just like bug scientists have been telling us for the last couple of decades or so. Simon seems to keep proving to us that we are not bugs. So did Paul Earlich by thoughfully publicising a global natural experiment in the form of his book, The Population Bomb. Dr. Earlich, a butterfly scientist, observed that if we were bugs, most of us would starve before 1990. We didn't - conclusion: we are not bugs.Economics is about the way humans provide for their material needs. Julien Simon is an economist and has collected a series of responsible well researched papers addressing the reality of where humanity is heading in terms of its ability to provide for its material needs. He is very much working within his discipline and the papers in the various sections appear to draw from reputable data sources to draw defensible conclusions. The bug scientists who seem upset by Simon's approach have a good point - the planet is of finite size, and some day it may get to full house. Fortunately, for the next few centuries or so a high school geography student with a calculator could work out that it will not be a worry. Serious demographers are now concerned about the peaking out of the planet's population and in the West it is becoming recognised as a major problem, known rather misleadingly as the problem of the "aging population". On the other hand, we do keep improving productive technology. The really big problem here is that it is putting Western people out of work and giving them piles of food that they are increasingly afraid to take to market. It would seem that Simon is stating the obvious when he focuses on the various ways that we keep improving the efficiency with which we use resources. That comes from human ingenuity which seems to be his point - humans outdo themselves in solving their own problems. So if it does get a little close in a few centuries time, we will probably have worked out how to adapt anyway. It all makes the populationphobia of the bug scientists look very silly at the end of this century. Simon seems to be the better placed for discussing human problems and the science in this book is similar to his previous works. All the more upsetting for his detractors who have grown too used to working outside of their disciplines with either highly speculative, or downright bad, science.
8 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Julian Simon is an idiot.,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Economics of Population: Key Classic Writings (Hardcover)
As a biologist, I have to point out that mister Simon's ideas are ridiculous. The only reason he survives is that his books are useful to those who wish to restrict the reproductive freedoms of others. The simple fact of the matter is that ANY level of growth in a closed system is unsustainable over a long enough period of time. Mister Simon gloats that Paul Ehrlich was wrong, that The Population Bomb's predictions failed to come true because of the ingenuity of human beings, specifically Norman Borlaug, in accomplishing what has become known as the green revolution, drastically increasing crop yields. This is undoubtably true. However, even the most optimistic plant geneticists say that the maximum possible remaining increase in food to plant yield is far less than 50%. Once this point is reached, farmland must expand. When plant yields cannot be increased, the doubling time of farmland becomes that of the human race, less than 40 years. Anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of calculus or even a bit of common sense can see that, even assuming that we need no land for anything else, there will soon simply be no room to grow anymore. At that point people start starving in droves. If you take into account that a large portion of the world is not farmable and that we need land for houses, factories, etc., the deadline gets a lot closer. Mister Simon's brand of blissful ignorance isn't just annoying, it's dangerous. He wishes to continue the unchecked overpopulation of the globe on the grounds of sloppy sentimentalism and pseudoscience that even a freshman biology student could see through. For those of his readers who disagree, I urge you: learn a little ecology and read up on population biology. You might find that you're pretty ticked off about how much you've been lied to!!!!!
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