Customer Reviews

The State of Humanity

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This is a book jam-packed with statistical information regarding, what else, the state of humanity. Collected are statistics relevant to life, health, standards of living, and the ecological state of the planet.

For example, if you believed Ehrlich and Ted Danson in the 1970's that the Earth was on the cusp of another ice age, only now to believe that the Earth is warming rapidly, your extreme beliefs, no doubt influenced by a media that has little regard for facts, could stand a dose of reality from the information in this book. Of course, Simon is not the only writer to debunk the eco-extremists. Dr. S. Fred Singer, inventor of the satellite ozone monitoring system, is among the large percentage of globabl scientists who concur that there is indeed nothing wrong with the ozone layer. How could they come to such a conclusion? Probably a consideration of the facts, ones such as those Simon has amassed.

Far from culling information only from the western world, the statistics in this book are often global. Of course, this is a book largely composed of statistics. Regardless of the accuracy of the information, quantitative analyses such as this are purely for reference.

I suggest Simon's book not as the end-all-be-all of rational debate, but merely as one source of information. Simon, and the information he has gathered, do not speak conclusively on any issue. What you will most probably gain from reading this book is an understanding of the kind of evidence and material that is not even considered by those who make opposing arguments. Opinions may vary, but ultimately facts lend themselves only to a finite number of interpretations.

Most cultural debates have their ebbs and flows; I am glad to see this segment of the argument being constructed with facts and rationality, however incomplete they may be.

I find the reviews of this book interesting. The last few comments made on the book are on how Simon's "predictions" have been debunked. His predictions are in fact panning out quite nicley. The united states "fall" on the world life expectancy list does not mean things have gotten worse: it means more countries are improving, and some have surpassed us. This is a bad thing? Other readers point out how things just havn't panned out. Are you all on crack? In truth Simon makes no predictions in his books that aren't based of fact. Over the last 100 years things have gotten MUCH better for EVERYONE. You can argue about disparities among the races, but the TRENDS for ALL of humanity show great improvements (ie, for all races). Scoff at his claims if you will, but you are likley living proof of some miracle brought about within even the last 40 years. It matters not what race you are. If you don't like Simon, hit up the statistical abstract of the united states and verify his numbers - this is a claim simon makes. Lastly, seeing some blips in humanity, such as the adverse effects of the fall of the soviet union (again, you cannot simply say simon is wrong because the soviets dove into free market economies and are struggling, anymore than you could have said capitalism is wrong because of the recession in the 80's, or the depression before WW2; russia is an EXTREME example of how NOT to transition into democracy, hence the term use of the uncontrolled "fall" in "fall of the soviet union"). This is the essence of simons ENTIRE BOOK - that the overall TRENDS are improving. Readers who miss that miss the book. Life isn't easy every day or every year, sorry. Don't go blaming Simon for that.

Simon states the world has trended positive in the past and will continue to do so in the future. If you read a review which states Simon has been proven wrong since the time of publication, then that reviewer totally misunderstands Simon's position OR really hasn't read the material. It would be impossible to say anything has been proven at this point, because Simon's analysis requires long periods of time for a trend to develop. Pointing to an increase in fuel prices or a decline in a region's life expectancy (due to a disaster, natural or economic) does not show a flaw in Simon's reasoning, only a bump in the road, to which humanity must develop a response. It is the RESPONSE which has made humans what they are, and has brought us to the modern state in which we now live.

I have a comment for the reviewer who seems to loathe everything about Simon. Life expectancy in the U.S. just reached its historic, all-time high. It could drop in any given year, but the trend is still up. In general, Simon's analyses are still correct today (October 2001).

I'd be an extreme environmentalist if I thought pollution in the world was getting worse. It's not. I'd be a back-to-the-plow agrarian if I thought industrial life was not good for humanity. But it is. I'd be a social liberal if I thought that crime was on the rise, poverty was growing and rampant, and life was generally getting worse. But it's not.

The state of humanity provides several discrete chapters that list statistics, trends, and quantifiable facts concerning the true state of the world today. True, you can use statistics to lie, if you're vague. Simon's book is far from vague, with shovel-fulls of information relating to several topics: acid-rain, global temperatures, infant mortality, suicide, standards of living, and on and on...

You don't have to live on the street or in the third world to do research, to find out that life is better everywhere than its ever been.

The empirical evidence collected in this volume is truly impressive -- in its depth, scope, and accessible presentation. This evidence overwhelmingly shows that the freer the market, the better off the society. Another reviewer of this book wrote that it shows that life is good only for rich white folks. This reviewer clearly didn't read the book, for the evidence collected in it shows that even in third-world countries, to the extent that these nations have private property and the rule of law, the quality of life is improving there as well. No collection of essays on the current state of humanity is more complete or compelling.

Julian Simon (now deceased) was the sort of man who enjoyed controversy, and detested the easy, simplistic answers of both population alarmists and do-nothing economists. His arguements on the direction of humanity and it's all important ability (and appetite!) for solving problems were so radical that liberals and conservatives alike hated them. That was fine by him. This book drives home again and again that more people is not the problem- it's the political and social opportunities these people are given to solve the problems and shortages that face them. Again and again the book describes how the Malthusian equation was absurd, and how food supply and enviromental degredation have never themselves been the real issue- only political oppresion, elitism, and restriction. This is NOT a book in defense of the wealthy or the lazy, but rather a book about the profound possibility of every human life. It's a book about priorities, not poo-pooing enviromental concerns (on the contrary- it celebrates the successes in enviromental law!). An excellent read, whether or not you even agree with his position, and a must have for students of socialist economics.

Since this book was published in 1995 we have had several revelations which have added to its most virtuous verification that the state of humanity is indeed improving. The most recent and probably the best commentary on this subject can be found in Bjorn Lomborg's book, "the Skeptical Environmentalist". As anyone who follows this debate knows, Lomborg delved into a project to disprove Julian Simon after reading his summations on this subject. Indeed Lomborg is currently being smeared by the same detractors who have castigated Simon, the American and international Socialists on the political far Left. The simple reason for this is that both men have exposed the fraudulence of bad science, fomented on a naive public, as part of a political agenda ostensibly in favor of improving our environment.

Simon amasses the work of 54 different scholars in his effort to point up the obvious; that the health of mankind is improving under a world increasingly devoted to free markets. The critics of this thesis are unfortunately subject to the dictum that Marxism exploits the economic ignorance of man. Unlike Simon, these environmental Marxist's are generally unacquainted with the works of Adam Smith or of Frederic Von Hayek and Ludwig Von Mises. Because of this gap in the intellectual development of Simon's critics his message is suppressed by a major media in America and Europe, which is more dedicated to the Socialist dogma. However, this suppression of good news on the environmental front is slowly lifting due to competing sources of information.

Another contributor to scientific truth is Michael Fumento who's book, "Science Under Siege", recites how the environmental misinformation campaign of the critics of Simon, affects our laws, our taxes, and our daily life... This book offers useful references to the many topics assessed in this ruthlessly contended arena.

The reason Simon has met with such hostility warrants increased scrutiny. It seems that mankinds need to feel virtuous and self-important, clashes with his need to champion ostensibly virtuous, but often factually invalid causes. When confronted with irrefutable proof of the invalidity of the cause, man has a way of engaging in a colossal self-deception, seemingly with few limitations. It isn't Simon or Lomborg who are wrong, it is the misguided notion of people who desire and need a continuation of a consistent worldview, one that assures their continuing validation as virtuous, caring souls. A study of religion offers a surfeit of anecdotal testament to this truth.

I predict that the complete works of Julian Simon will soon be offered in the e-learning world of online universities. The continual thwarting of scientific fact and economic reality by the major media and the elite academy has heard its swan song; its time has come and gone. The disrupting technologies of the information revolution have sealed the fate of this exercise as just another aberrant chapter in the history of mankind's quest for a greater economic surplus for all of its citizens. Let's hear it for Julian Simon, a man whose greatness will unfortunately, only be realized posthumously.

Among the reviews so far you can see two trends -- four or five stars among those who have open minds, zero or one star among those who refuse to see anything that doesn't match their prejudices.

You can argue about whether it's any fun living in a third world country, but you can't argue with the *fact* that infant mortality is way down over the last century, in third world *and* developed countries. Our existing social system made those babies stop dying, with a few hundred years of effort on clean water, sanitation, antibiotics, electricity, and other things the whiners now take for granted.

Simon's most important contribution is to look at progress or regress over the span of centuries, using the best historical sources he can find. The amazing result is that almost all the trends are VERY VERY positive! Don't believe me or anybody -- read the book and check his sources. It's all very well to gripe, but back up your gripes with some hard data like Simon's.

I've loved this book since the day I got it. There are so many people in the world who just lay down to the man and believe anything the media shoves down their throats, mostly in regards to environmental problems. This book is a great tool to enlighten said individuals, teaching them to not be so influenced by television and newspapers, but rather to search for the hard facts before giving in and believing the end is near.