Buy used: $52.48

FREE delivery Tuesday, May 30

Or fastest delivery Thursday, May 25. Order within 7 hrs 17 mins

Select delivery location

Used: Good | Details

Sold by THE COAST

Fulfilled by Amazon

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Have one to sell?

Sell on Amazon

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See this image

Follow the Author

Julian Lincoln Simon

The Ultimate Resource Paperback – January 21, 1983

by Julian Lincoln Simon (Author)

4.6 13 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$37.21

—

$33.24

Paperback

"Please retry"

$52.48

—

$48.64

The description for this book, The Ultimate Resource, will be forthcoming.

Print length

432 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Princeton University Press
Publication date

January 21, 1983
Dimensions

6.5 x 1.25 x 9.5 inches
ISBN-10

0691003696
ISBN-13

978-0691003696
See all details

Most purchased | Highest ratedin this set of products
Marian L. Tupy
248
Hardcover
$26.49
Lowest Pricein this set of products
Paul Sabin
121
Paperback
$15.20
This item:
Julian Lincoln Simon
13
Paperback
18 offers from $48.64
Julian Lincoln Simon
63
Paperback
$54.28
Julian Simon
13
Hardcover
$99.84
Julian L. Simon
14
Paperback
$58.91
Julian Lincoln Simon
Paperback
$61.59

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Princeton University Press; Reprint edition (January 21, 1983)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 432 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0691003696
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0691003696
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.35 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.25 x 9.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,223,922 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4,098 in Environmental Economics (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.6 13 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Julian Lincoln Simon

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5

13 global ratings

5 star		79%
4 star		16%
3 star 0% (0%)		0%
2 star 0% (0%)		0%
1 star		6%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Eric F.

Great book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 19, 2022

Verified Purchase

Everything arrived on time and as advertised

Helpful

MUTTT

Serious and Timeless Perspective

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 7, 2010

Verified Purchase

Mr. Simon was a writer with whom I was familiar primarily through editorials. Because he introduced the idea of airlines paying customers to address overbooking, his practicality caught my eye. This book should be mandatory reading for every young person caught up in the instinctive panic that accompanies "shortages" or apparently unsolvable problems like overpopulation. In this book he demonstrates that most shortages are not unavoidable, were generally complicated in large part by politically generated panic and virtually all of them will be resolved. Had I read this when it was published, the rise of India could easily have been foreseen while through the eye of the major books of that era such as Zero Population Growth, we were convinced the country was doomed to starvation and decline.

The most disarming characteristics of his approach is that he began by drawing the same irresistible conclusions but only after thorough investigation did he discover time and time again that these "certainties" were simply false. They were based upon "common sense" not truth.

11 people found this helpful

Helpful

Craig H. Morgan

Julian Simon is excellent

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 18, 2010

Verified Purchase

Julian Simon in very cogent terms brings sanity to the debate over population control snd resource exhaustion It is puzzling that Paul Erhlich's The Population Bomb got so much attention and praise while Simon's The Ultimate Resource is almost ignored.

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

david a klein

you may not be ready for this

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 14, 2014

Verified Purchase

the truth, unvarnished. people trump trees, oil, pets, and amber waves

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Doug Erlandson

A great prognosticator

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 3, 2016

Julian Simon did not live long enough to see many of his predictions in "The Ultimate Resource" (published in 1980) to come to pass. However, looking back on what he wrote three and a half decades ago, he had an uncanny ability to predict the future, particularly when it came to seeing how human inventiveness (people being the ultimate resource) would find ways to use the material given to us on planet earth for our good. In addition to arguing that people are our ultimate resource (and thus it is to our advantage when there are more of them, hence more brain power), Simon argued that we are not in danger of running out of most resources. For example, he went against the then-common belief that we would run out of oil in 30-40 years, for he knew that there was far more oil available for our use, which could be extracted once human inventiveness found a cost-effective way. Well after his untimely death in 1998 the process of hydraulic fracturing (or "fracking") unlocked the vast quantities of oil found in shale rock. Thus, Simon was proved to be an excellent prognosticator when it comes to oil, as he has been in other areas as well.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

Pamela Tolbert

Wonderful. Much needed. Now more than ever.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 30, 2006

I was first introduced to the first edition of the book while in college many years ago. I always like to go back and read even now.

Simon pulls apart many radical environmentalist myths in one fell swoop, explaining that beyond oil, fiber, and chemicals, the ultimate resource is the human mind which has always had to adapt. And adapt it will again, not because of some Darwinian survival mechanism set on autopilot to find new ways of living, but rather the true thinking of things through via the human mind's creativity.

His examples are many, but primarily he shows that overpopulation is a Malthusain myth and that rather than a crunch of human flesh in the world, we are far more likely to find birthrates falling with rapid industrialization. That's the first point--see America and Europe on this one, as proof he's correct, in that being a one child producer per family or even no children for marrieds is the hottest trend in many nations, with even negative consequences for issues like societal stability and welfare and pension plans, social security, retirement benefits, labor force needs, etc.

Secondly, for those areas that the Mainstream Media and social science pundits are always pointing to as dire warnings about the dangers of overpopulation and still have cultures that value large families (as in many parts of the Mid East and Asia), it would seem the real problem is lack of liberty, horrid political arrangements, lack of industrialization, and lack of infrastructure and modern farming methods that seem the real culprit in human suffering.

This actually makes sense, unlike what we were probably taught in school (i.e. that "overpopulation" is a generic term that means distress regardless of context).

There is much more, but these are the basic highlights. The book also details several resources and the reality of how continued exploration and replacement of some items actually reduces the prices consumers must pay for the upkeep of industry and other life activities.

A wonderful "resource" to have on one's shelf in any case to counter the incessant propoganda of UN studies and Planned Parenthood and dozens of other groups who purport to care aobut humanity but think limiting it is the key to human happiness. Simon shows just the opposite, to wit, human fecundity and happiness are luckily tied together.

-W.T.

16 people found this helpful

Helpful

Amazon Music Stream millions of songs	Amazon Advertising Find, attract, and engage customers	6pm Score deals on fashion brands	AbeBooks Books, art & collectibles	ACX Audiobook Publishing Made Easy	Sell on Amazon Start a Selling Account

Amazon Business Everything For Your Business	Amazon Fresh Groceries & More Right To Your Door	AmazonGlobal Ship Orders Internationally	Home Services Experienced Pros Happiness Guarantee	Amazon Ignite Sell your original Digital Educational Resources	Amazon Web Services Scalable Cloud Computing Services

Audible Listen to Books & Original Audio Performances	Book Depository Books With Free Delivery Worldwide	Box Office Mojo Find Movie Box Office Data	ComiXology Thousands of Digital Comics	DPReview Digital Photography	Fabric Sewing, Quilting & Knitting

Goodreads Book reviews & recommendations	IMDb Movies, TV & Celebrities	IMDbPro Get Info Entertainment Professionals Need	Kindle Direct Publishing Indie Digital & Print Publishing Made Easy	Amazon Photos Unlimited Photo Storage Free With Prime	Prime Video Direct Video Distribution Made Easy

Shopbop Designer Fashion Brands	Amazon Warehouse Great Deals on Quality Used Products	Whole Foods Market America’s Healthiest Grocery Store	Woot! Deals and Shenanigans	Zappos Shoes & Clothing	Ring Smart Home Security Systems

eero WiFi Stream 4K Video in Every Room	Blink Smart Security for Every Home	Neighbors App Real-Time Crime & Safety Alerts	Amazon Subscription Boxes Top subscription boxes – right to your door	PillPack Pharmacy Simplified	Amazon Renewed Like-new products you can trust

Follow the Author

The Ultimate Resource Paperback – January 21, 1983

What do customers buy after viewing this item?

Product details

Videos

About the author

Julian Lincoln Simon

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.