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The Ultimate Resource 2 Paperback – July 1, 1998

by Julian Lincoln Simon (Author)

60 customer reviews

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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.

The Ultimate Resource 2

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Julian L. Simon is the world's greatest contrarian. The Ultimate Resource 2--an update, not a sequel, despite the title--skewers the sacred cows of environmentalism, population control, and Paul Ehrlich. In the contest between resource scarcity and human ingenuity, Simon bets the farm on the ability of intelligent people to overcome their problems. Thankfully, he is not a theorist. This book lays out convincing empirical evidence for Simon's prediction of a prosperous future. The key to progress is not state-run conservation programs, he says, but economic and political freedom. Only then can talented minds properly apply themselves to our earthly dilemmas. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Julian Simon's 1981 book The Ultimate Resource excoriated prominent environmentalists for resorting to scare tactics and data-bending.... As Simon notes, the past sixteen years have been kind to many of his ideas.... Much as Simon had predicted, global per capita food production edged upward steadily while population rose and air quality improved in many places and ways."--Kathleen Courrier, The Washington Post

"With a full understanding of the opposition and smears he would encounter, Simon nevertheless wrote The Economics of Population Growth, Population Matters, and his best-known book, The Ultimate Resource. To him, the ultimate resource was human intelligence. We should also add, in honor of Simon, the courage to use that intelligence."--Thomas Sowell, Chicago Sun-Times

"The most powerful challenge to be mounted against the principles of popular environmentalism in the last fifteen years."--The Washington Post Book World

"Compelling and often brilliantly original. . . . [Simon's] economic analysis will leave a lot of readers heavily revising their thinking about the world around them."--Fortune

"The Ultimate Resource is the most powerful challenge to be mounted against the principles of popular environmentalism in the last 15 years. . . . What is most startling is its deep-rooted optimism about the human condition. . . . [A] landmark book."--Washington Post Book World

"The truly delightful aspect of the book is its persistent iconoclasm. Page after page, Simon punctures myths of scarcity and offers instead the counsels of optimism."--The American Spectator

"Julian Simon, an economics professor, systematically, shockingly, irresponsibly explodes each and every foundation of the whole environmental movement. And he does so with so many facts, graphs and examples that it would be a strange person who could walk away from reading this book without his or her faith in the assumptions of the environmental movement being just a little bit shaken up. . . . This is a magnificent book with the power to change minds."--Matt Ridley, The Sunday Telegraph

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Product details

Paperback: 778 pages
Publisher: Princeton University Press; Revised ed. edition (July 1, 1998)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0691003815
ISBN-13: 978-0691003818
Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1.7 x 9.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 60 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,205,468 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1633 in Books > Science & Math > Nature & Ecology > Natural Resources
- #1979 in Books > Business & Money > Economics > Theory
- #2935 in Books > Business & Money > Economics > Environmental Economics

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Top customer reviews

In praise of the human mind and spirit

ByE. J.on February 7, 2012

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

The Ultimate Resource 2 is an optimistic review of people's ability to come up with solutions to most of the world's problems. This book and its slim companion, It's Getting Better All the Time, are excellent testaments to the power of the human mind. Backed up with solid data and chock full of charts, they illustrate the improvements (and innovations in particular) that humans have made to their environment and will likely make in the future. This text is highly recommended. My only regret is Professor Simon is no longer around to fight the good fight although thanks to this and his other books there are many others who are continuing to do so.

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What a joy to read

ByDaveon December 12, 2013

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

What a joy to read! Dr. Simon's work is a much needed viewpoint in today's world. I recommend this book to anyone who wants a non-biased look at the state of our world's resources including energy, food, minerals, and a very awesome resource, the wonderful people who inhabit our world (i.e. population). The historical truth presented in this book will astound you! The future actually looks great!

0Comment 3 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

If you care about the big picture in economics...

ByThomas M. Mcgovernon February 20, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Read this book. It debunks the small-world, we-are-running-out-of-resources collectivist blather of the PC liberal fascists who are the unwitting dupes of the NWO. Understand that human creativity is, and has always been, the ultimate resource. If you like this book, I suggest that you follow it with The Science of Christian Economy by LaRouche.

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Tony Meyer, Brooklyn, New York

ByTony Meyeron April 16, 2015

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

One of the most important books I've ever read.
Wish the naysayers would read it.
Wish every senator would read it.
Wish all the environmentalists read this!

0Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

epic book

ByHanna norbergon May 2, 2014

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Hold on to your seat. This book changes your view of the world. For ever. For the better.
There are simply not enough words to praise this epic work by Julian Simon aka the doom slayer.

0Comment 2 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Serious and Timeless Perspective

ByCharles A. Magillon August 7, 2010

Format: PaperbackVerified 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.

0Comment 4 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

A must-read for anyone interested in population issues.

ByArsell Potaskyon November 4, 1999

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

One reader below states that "Julian Simon is an idiot." The late Mr. Simon was clearly anything but an idiot. This same reader goes on to state that "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." That is true enough, but as Professor Simon points out, it isn't the issue. The issue is whether the limits of the closed system are sufficiently proximate so as to be relevant to policy decisions now. Professor Simon offers copious evidence to prove that whatever the ultimate physical limits of population growth might be (sunlight for photosynthesis striking the earth, land surface available for housing and farming), these limits are so very remote to be of essentially zero value in making policy decisions. Professor Simon illustrates this point by the following analogy: It is a generally-accepted fact that our Sun will burn out billions of years in the future. Thus, our Sun is ultimately a "closed system": only x amount of fuel, and then no more sunlight. While we can assume that this fact as true, it manifestly can have no reasonable bearing on our decisions today, since it is simply too remote. Professor Simon argues that the same is true for the carrying capacity for our Earth: ultimately we can perhaps talk about limits to resources, but it is demostrably true based on objective empirical evidence that these ultimate limits are so remote as to reduce them to irrelevance for any matter of public policy. Professor Simon convincingly argues that this is so for food production, living space, metals, wildlife, the environment, etc. I highly recommend reading this book along with Paul Ehlrich's "The Population Bomb." Professor Simon elsewhere shows the implications for the baby bust (to which books like "The Population Bomb" contributed) will have for solvency of Social Security and Medicare, as well as for the national security interests of the United States. I come away with the strong feeling that a furious hatred for mankind lurks behind the ZPG movement. Read this book, and pass it along to your friends.

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The Ultimate Resource 2

ByThomas Nelsonon November 27, 2010

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This book offers all sorts of information/references that support the different arguments about the scarcity of energy and natural resources. Puts the "big green monster" in the political light and reveals the rumors that are spoken as if they are facts. Great source!!

0Comment 2 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Most recent customer reviews

With a hammer in hand, everything became a nail.

This review is part of a pair. The companion review is of Collapse, by Jared Diamond, which has much subject matter in common with The Ultimate Resource 2, but approaches it from...Read more

Published 7 months ago by Ronald W. Garrison

Right-headed thinking

The untimely death of Julian Simon in 1998 cut short a truly brilliant career of someone who was able to look beyond the present and accurately predict the future.Read more

Published 10 months ago by Doug Erlandson

Five Stars

Perfect as expected

Published 1 year ago by Amazon Customer

Julian Simon was right

"The Ultimate Resource 2" is an updated version of "The Ultimate Resource." They are the most memorable works of a great thinker, whose untimely death in 1998 cut...Read more

Published 1 year ago by Doug Erlandson

you may not be ready for this

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

Published on December 13, 2014 by david a klein

Simon was wrong

This book did get a lot of attention and support from pro-growth advocates. And Simon did point out two important things: First, that prices of commodities have been going down...Read more

Published on November 23, 2013 by Max Kummerow

Superficial, simplistic reasoning

A persistent error that the author makes in using his many graphs and figures is to extrapolate mindlessly past trends into the distant future.Techno-Fix: Why Technology Won't Save Us Or the EnvironmentThe Bet: Paul Ehrlich, Julian Simon, and Our Gamble over Earth's Future Read more

Published on October 23, 2013 by Dr. Lionel

Review of The Ultimate Resource 2

Julian Simon has always put the hype and hyperbole of our world in perspective and this book is 700+ pages of crisp, accurate data shooting holes in most of the verbal balloons...Read more

Published on July 15, 2013 by E. Cresswell

Julian Simon was right

"The Ultimate Resource" and its updated version "The Ultimate Resource 2" are the most memorable works of a great thinker of our age, whose untimely death in 1998...Read more

Published on February 13, 2013 by Doug Erlandson

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