What do you think?
Rate this book
The Ultimate Resource 2
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 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 talented people need economic freedom and security to bring their talents to fruition.
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 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 talented people need economic freedom and security to bring their talents to fruition.
778 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
13 people are currently reading
913 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
November 1, 2012
So I am not alone?
Grown up in a social environment where everybody was convinced that the end is near ( the end of oil, nutrition, oxygene, resources of all kind ) I always had the strong feeling that more people on earth are more solvers and not more problems. Today I even look forward to a world with two billion more inhabitants and try to imagine what we could deal with, if only we could manage to educate maybe 25 percent of them properly.
Simons Ultimate Resource is the first book I got at hands questioning the general believe that overpopulation is the source of all our problems. I am very happy about this finding.
Grown up in a social environment where everybody was convinced that the end is near ( the end of oil, nutrition, oxygene, resources of all kind ) I always had the strong feeling that more people on earth are more solvers and not more problems. Today I even look forward to a world with two billion more inhabitants and try to imagine what we could deal with, if only we could manage to educate maybe 25 percent of them properly.
Simons Ultimate Resource is the first book I got at hands questioning the general believe that overpopulation is the source of all our problems. I am very happy about this finding.
May 24, 2008
The most important book I read in my 20's. Turned my "conventional wisdom" upside down. Has renewed relevance today in the midst ofa repeat of the energy crisis "sky is falling" of the late '70s
August 14, 2013
Simon's optimism hinged on his willful ignorance of what the word FINITE actually means. See his sections on oil and copper, where he declared they aren't finite in a "practical" sense because they can never be measured precisely. He used a perverse example of fractals to illustrate the point on copper, i.e. theoretical infinite division of a line somehow means resources can be infinitely divided. Those are the musings of a madman, not a visionary.
The state of the world debunks most of his claims, and his definition of progress was limited to narrow parameters of human welfare in modern economies propped up by finite oil. He ignored the continual destruction of nature and chronic poverty in the world beyond his comfortable existence.
Much of his falsely optimistic rambling assumed that energy would remain cheap indefinitely. Low cost energy was the engine of growthism that people took for granted until 2008 or so (see Peak Oil). I wonder if he was ever aware that America's oil production peaked in 1970? No new oil was created back then by "the human mind." It was just taken from other nations that hadn't peaked yet. Now, the whole world finds itself in America's 1970 bind and the global economy has nobody left to borrow from. Simon probably would have claimed that newer drilling techniques render shale and tar sands as free-flowing as crude oil, which is a math-defying argument Peak Oil deniers keep pushing.
An easy way to debunk Simon is to ask how economic growth could continue forever on an island like New Zealand (where it clearly can't), then extrapolate that logic to the entire Earth, noting that the physical scale is the only real difference. Simon's response would have been endless vagaries and talk of free markets creating something from nothing, with only blind faith and circular arguments to back it up.
The state of the world debunks most of his claims, and his definition of progress was limited to narrow parameters of human welfare in modern economies propped up by finite oil. He ignored the continual destruction of nature and chronic poverty in the world beyond his comfortable existence.
Much of his falsely optimistic rambling assumed that energy would remain cheap indefinitely. Low cost energy was the engine of growthism that people took for granted until 2008 or so (see Peak Oil). I wonder if he was ever aware that America's oil production peaked in 1970? No new oil was created back then by "the human mind." It was just taken from other nations that hadn't peaked yet. Now, the whole world finds itself in America's 1970 bind and the global economy has nobody left to borrow from. Simon probably would have claimed that newer drilling techniques render shale and tar sands as free-flowing as crude oil, which is a math-defying argument Peak Oil deniers keep pushing.
An easy way to debunk Simon is to ask how economic growth could continue forever on an island like New Zealand (where it clearly can't), then extrapolate that logic to the entire Earth, noting that the physical scale is the only real difference. Simon's response would have been endless vagaries and talk of free markets creating something from nothing, with only blind faith and circular arguments to back it up.
July 23, 2013
As I read this book, I thought, "Has any other human being read every chapter, endnote, and afterword?" I suppose there must be someone. If you are that person, please tell me. Regardless of whether anyone else has actually read all 617 pages, and I did not read the footnotes or bibliography which together take up more than 100 pages, the book is fascinating. If you are looking for an emotional novel, avoid this. It is facts. It is analysis. It is charts. And it is irrefutable.
The agitator in me enjoyed reading Julian Simons's comments about people who wrote to criticize his conclusions.
If you have a big family, you might appreciate the conclusions. If you like stewing in your self pity and gloom about the future, eschew this book. In addition, if you want something you can pick up and finish in a day, or a weekend, or maybe a week off from work, this might not be the right book. But it is worth your time, every minute of your time.
The agitator in me enjoyed reading Julian Simons's comments about people who wrote to criticize his conclusions.
If you have a big family, you might appreciate the conclusions. If you like stewing in your self pity and gloom about the future, eschew this book. In addition, if you want something you can pick up and finish in a day, or a weekend, or maybe a week off from work, this might not be the right book. But it is worth your time, every minute of your time.
March 22, 2007
The magnum opus of one of the great contrarians.
June 14, 2023
People have said that they, like the author, have stopped being depressed after they figured out that the 'running out of resources' thing is a scam, most likely because the thought structures of environmentalism "I am a parasite on the planet and the world would be better off without me" are the same as in depression. So read this book to feel better, and to be more right about the world too. It is available for free on the authors website.
It is kind of funny how wrong this narrative is. If resources do run out, why haven't we ever run out of anything? It is sad that they're teaching this to a generation of young people in forced schools, even though all empirical evidence goes against it. We are bombarded with it in the legacy media every second of every day, and can't even walk into a grocery store any more without having this narrative blared at us through every available loudspeaker. Depression rates have predictably spiked through the roof in recent years, to almost half in some populations, as if that were the goal, which it might be. Not to mention all the destructive effects from impoverishing humanity for the sake of 'sustainability', when it would use fewer resources to not recycle. So that narrative is a tool for evil and destruction, for making humanity worse, for keeping us in the dark ages. Obviously saying that resources are finite is just an excuse for using fewer now. If they can be replenished then there's no point in reducing standards of living to save resources.
This book is the antidote. It tells you why natural resources are not meaningfully finite. Finiteness just is the wrong thought model. If you internalize this, you will no longer be of that world glaring through the loudspeakers, you will just be in it. It creates a certain space between you and the groupthink. In hindsight, it seems like this might have been the most important influences I ever had for my mental health and spiritual enlightenment. And I never even read that much of it, I took in much of it through secondary portrayals such as videos (back before such content got censored), but have had a phase where I was deeply immersed in it. Marking the book as unfinished is kind of a placeholder for that. The thinking in this book was a major influence, but I didn't really read enough to be able to really judge the writing, it might be a little dated; the five stars is for the general message.
On the downside, once you know the finiteness narrative is b.s., it kind of opens you up to become incredibly distrustful, because you have a hard time believing any other groupthink narratives. I suppose ignorance is bliss.
It is kind of funny how wrong this narrative is. If resources do run out, why haven't we ever run out of anything? It is sad that they're teaching this to a generation of young people in forced schools, even though all empirical evidence goes against it. We are bombarded with it in the legacy media every second of every day, and can't even walk into a grocery store any more without having this narrative blared at us through every available loudspeaker. Depression rates have predictably spiked through the roof in recent years, to almost half in some populations, as if that were the goal, which it might be. Not to mention all the destructive effects from impoverishing humanity for the sake of 'sustainability', when it would use fewer resources to not recycle. So that narrative is a tool for evil and destruction, for making humanity worse, for keeping us in the dark ages. Obviously saying that resources are finite is just an excuse for using fewer now. If they can be replenished then there's no point in reducing standards of living to save resources.
This book is the antidote. It tells you why natural resources are not meaningfully finite. Finiteness just is the wrong thought model. If you internalize this, you will no longer be of that world glaring through the loudspeakers, you will just be in it. It creates a certain space between you and the groupthink. In hindsight, it seems like this might have been the most important influences I ever had for my mental health and spiritual enlightenment. And I never even read that much of it, I took in much of it through secondary portrayals such as videos (back before such content got censored), but have had a phase where I was deeply immersed in it. Marking the book as unfinished is kind of a placeholder for that. The thinking in this book was a major influence, but I didn't really read enough to be able to really judge the writing, it might be a little dated; the five stars is for the general message.
On the downside, once you know the finiteness narrative is b.s., it kind of opens you up to become incredibly distrustful, because you have a hard time believing any other groupthink narratives. I suppose ignorance is bliss.
January 18, 2016
Just the best!
January 2, 2019
Julian Simon has become one of my heroes. This book provides detailed data and analysis of economic facts in regard to the quality of life on earth and man's use of resources. We are not running out of resources...just the opposite. The facts do not support the doomsters fears, and the solution to our environment, problems is more freedom, and greater development. Any honest person who claims differently must address the plethora of data presented here by Simon.
March 27, 2009
I was reading this in 1998 when Dr. Simon died. I hope the oaths I spoke as I read didn't contribute to his demise. He is now in a world where economic substitutability is unconstrained by physical limits. I learned a lot about what I still find to be a flawed model.
October 9, 2009
Argues the benefits of population growth and the lack of support for the contrary view.
February 10, 2015
A scholarly work, by an economist, on how it is doubtful that almost anyting the doomsayers have been saying is likely to come to pass.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews