The End of Affluence

by Paul R. Ehrlich

Projects the effects of the scarcity of natural resources on American relations and provides the individual with suggestions for adopting a new life-style

Genres: Nonfiction, Economics

307 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Paul Ralph Ehrlich is an American biologist and educator who is the Bing Professor of Population Studies in the department of Biological Sciences at Stanford University and president of Stanford's Center for Conservation Biology. By training he is an entomologist specializing in Lepidoptera (butterflies), but he is better known as an ecologist and a demographer, specifically for his warnings about unchecked population growth and limited resources. Ehrlich became a household name after publication of his controversial 1968 book The Population Bomb.

Reviews

[Vicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Important bibliography.

[Jim Mcbob · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was sitting on my shelf for a very long time and I finally got around to reading it. Written in 1974 in the midst of energy crisis, recession and a severe bear stock market, Erich pounds the drum that these difficulties were just the beginning and that soon the U.S. and the globe would be inevitably sucked into a depression that would result in mass starvation and abject poverty for people who were luckier or took steps to ensure their survival.

Obviously this prediction was wrong overall, but what is amazing is that Ehrlich was utterly wrong about every single element of every thread of his analysis. And not just a bit wrong, or wide of the mark, but so 100% wrong that it is as if he was writing about a different planet.

Ehrlich maintains an indignant tone throughout the book, heaping disdain on economists, corporate leaders and scientists. All of these “experts” are apparently idiots according to him, it seems that Ehrlich alone did not have cobwebs over his eyes and saw clearly the impending doom.

According to his bio Ehrlich is an entomologist and wrote his thesis on butterflies. Unfortunately he fancied himself an economist and sociologist, despite not having the slightest clue about how these fields work. It’s something to remember the next time, say a brain surgeon, pretends to know something about government. Ehrlich would have done well to stick to his bugs instead of writing about things way beyond his grasp.