Rating: 
Summary: One of the great books of the 20th century
Review: Rarely is a book written that fundamentally changed something about my worldview. Julian Simon's The Ultimate Resource 2 (UR2) is such a book. Simon's book shows that man is a born problem-solver--given enough freedom to improvise. I walk the earth today knowing a "secret" that few others know. After reading UR2, I know that humanity can resolve its fundamental problems: energy shortages, overcrowding, environmental degredation.
The only concievable critics of UR2 are the regulators and manipulators of human affairs who use their positions of power to thwart innovation throgh nanny-state governance. Simon's analysis of the realities of environmental crises is the clearest I have read anywhere. Most of what we think we know about the environment is piece-meal: one fact or another, a few anecdotes lumped together into a conclusion. We hear that the Ozone Layer is disintegrating or that acid rain is killing lakes in the Northeast, or about Love Canal or various Superfund sites. Without a larger perspective, it all seems scary. Simon blows all of the hysteria away by stating that there is only one truly valid measure of the overall state of the environment: average life expectancy. By this standard, the environment has been improving for a century. Humans are healthier, and more comfortable than they have ever been.
The Ultimate Resource 2 is itself a valuable resource that should be prominently displayed in every home library. The hours I have invested in reading it have already been paid back in the form of great stimulating conversation with other people. Simon regards human innovation as the ultimate resource, but I think that the truth is actually much more valuable and rare--and in terms of this commodity, Simon's book provides the equivalent of a pot of gold.
Rating:
Summary: One of the great books of the 20th century
Review: Rarely is a book written that fundamentally changed something about my worldview. Julian Simon's The Ultimate Resource 2 (UR2) is such a book. Simon's book shows that man is a born problem-solver--given enough freedom to improvise. I walk the earth today knowing a "secret" that few others know. After reading UR2, I know that humanity can resolve its fundamental problems: energy shortages, overcrowding, environmental degredation.
The only concievable critics of UR2 are the regulators and manipulators of human affairs who use their positions of power to thwart innovation throgh nanny-state governance. Simon's analysis of the realities of environmental crises is the clearest I have read anywhere. Most of what we think we know about the environment is piece-meal: one fact or another, a few anecdotes lumped together into a conclusion. We hear that the Ozone Layer is disintegrating or that acid rain is killing lakes in the Northeast, or about Love Canal or various Superfund sites. Without a larger perspective, it all seems scary. Simon blows all of the hysteria away by stating that there is only one truly valid measure of the overall state of the environment: average life expectancy. By this standard, the environment has been improving for a century. Humans are healthier, and more comfortable than they have ever been.
The Ultimate Resource 2 is itself a valuable resource that should be prominently displayed in every home library. The hours I have invested in reading it have already been paid back in the form of great stimulating conversation with other people. Simon regards human innovation as the ultimate resource, but I think that the truth is actually much more valuable and rare--and in terms of this commodity, Simon's book provides the equivalent of a pot of gold.
Rating: 
Summary: Know Thine Enemy
Review: Sadly, in order to understand the intellectual underpinnings of the Reagan and both Bush administrations and probably much of the Republican Party, this book is a must read. But it must be read carefully and critically. Look at the footnotes, the sources referenced and their ages.Julian Simon, the late University of Maryland economist, devoted the last thirty-five years of his life to refuting the proposition that world population size must be limited or disaster will ensue. In the course of three dozen articles and several books he developed a detailed thesis based on his fanatical belief in the value of all human life, even potential human life, and in human ingenuity and infallibility in problem solving. The Ultimate Resource 2 is his magnum opus. Simon's final product is a richly footnoted tour de force in the fine intellectual tradition of Rush Limbaugh. Like Limbaugh, Simon searches out the most extreme quotes from his opponents, pulls them out of context, and holds them up to ridicule. In Simon's case this process is especially aided by the advantage of hindsight: he selects quotes from sources usually thirty, sometimes fifty, and even two hundred years old. Simon's desperation to be taken seriously and his hopeless lack of information once he steps out of his area of expertise (economics) is especially well illustrated in his Chapter 18 on "Environmental Resource Scares." Under "Definitely Disproven Threats" he lumps coffee as a cause for pancreatic cancer, cell phones as a cause of brain cancer, fluoride in drinking water, and Alar, for all of which the scientific consensus is in agreement, with asbestos, DDT, and lead, for which the scientific consensus certainly is not. In so doing Simon demonstrates a misunderstanding of the scientific process. One study, let alone one unfounded hypothesis, does not establish scientific truth, nor does one study refute it. It does not require keen observation to note that we didn't all starve to death in the 1970's as predicted in Paul Ehrlich's The Population Bomb or to note that the reason was a very considerable advance in agricultural science (The Green Revolution). Simon wishes us to believe (Chapter 5) that "the overwhelming consensus of respected agricultural economists" never thought there was any danger of famine in the 1970's and that Ehrlich's prediction was purely a scare tactic. The devil is in the details. Simon's footnote for "the overwhelming consensus" of agriculture economists is that eminent scientific journal, The Washington Post. Careful inspection of the book's many footnotes reveal precious little primary source material of the type that one might expect from an economist, e.g. statistics from the Department of Agriculture. Most footnotes are to newspaper articles or the precious few authors in Simon's intellectual tradition. Ironically, much of the progress in standard of living perceived by the well-to-do in the U.S. in the last thirty years is directly attributable to the wake-up call contained in The Silent Spring and The Population Bomb. Yes, our cars smell better, some of our lakes and streams have come back to life, and we are at least aware of impending resource problems and working on them. Simon's devotion to the triumph of human ingenuity is based on perceived trends observed in the last thirty years that owe much to the environmental movement. Simon's thesis is thus: the environmental movement was based on bad science and bad information, the "progress" observed in the last thirty years is attributable to human numbers, ingenuity, and economics. Therefore, there never was a problem and we can all go marching merrily into future with no limits in food, space, raw materials, or energy. This is religion, not reality. That it should become the intellectual basis on which our current government functions is travesty. YES, read The Ultimate Resource 2. But don't stop there. When you find yourself bewildered by Simon's concepts like the "non-finiteness" of resources or the idea of 500 billion human beings on this planet (there are six billion now), read the Ehrlichs' most recent work, The Betrayal of Science and Reason.
Rating:
Summary: Know Thine Enemy
Review: Sadly, in order to understand the intellectual underpinnings of the Reagan and both Bush administrations and probably much of the Republican Party, this book is a must read. But it must be read carefully and critically. Look at the footnotes, the sources referenced and their ages. Julian Simon, the late University of Maryland economist, devoted the last thirty-five years of his life to refuting the proposition that world population size must be limited or disaster will ensue. In the course of three dozen articles and several books he developed a detailed thesis based on his fanatical belief in the value of all human life, even potential human life, and in human ingenuity and infallibility in problem solving. The Ultimate Resource 2 is his magnum opus. Simon's final product is a richly footnoted tour de force in the fine intellectual tradition of Rush Limbaugh. Like Limbaugh, Simon searches out the most extreme quotes from his opponents, pulls them out of context, and holds them up to ridicule. In Simon's case this process is especially aided by the advantage of hindsight: he selects quotes from sources usually thirty, sometimes fifty, and even two hundred years old. Simon's desperation to be taken seriously and his hopeless lack of information once he steps out of his area of expertise (economics) is especially well illustrated in his Chapter 18 on "Environmental Resource Scares." Under "Definitely Disproven Threats" he lumps coffee as a cause for pancreatic cancer, cell phones as a cause of brain cancer, fluoride in drinking water, and Alar, for all of which the scientific consensus is in agreement, with asbestos, DDT, and lead, for which the scientific consensus certainly is not. In so doing Simon demonstrates a misunderstanding of the scientific process. One study, let alone one unfounded hypothesis, does not establish scientific truth, nor does one study refute it. It does not require keen observation to note that we didn't all starve to death in the 1970's as predicted in Paul Ehrlich's The Population Bomb or to note that the reason was a very considerable advance in agricultural science (The Green Revolution). Simon wishes us to believe (Chapter 5) that "the overwhelming consensus of respected agricultural economists" never thought there was any danger of famine in the 1970's and that Ehrlich's prediction was purely a scare tactic. The devil is in the details. Simon's footnote for "the overwhelming consensus" of agriculture economists is that eminent scientific journal, The Washington Post. Careful inspection of the book's many footnotes reveal precious little primary source material of the type that one might expect from an economist, e.g. statistics from the Department of Agriculture. Most footnotes are to newspaper articles or the precious few authors in Simon's intellectual tradition. Ironically, much of the progress in standard of living perceived by the well-to-do in the U.S. in the last thirty years is directly attributable to the wake-up call contained in The Silent Spring and The Population Bomb. Yes, our cars smell better, some of our lakes and streams have come back to life, and we are at least aware of impending resource problems and working on them. Simon's devotion to the triumph of human ingenuity is based on perceived trends observed in the last thirty years that owe much to the environmental movement. Simon's thesis is thus: the environmental movement was based on bad science and bad information, the "progress" observed in the last thirty years is attributable to human numbers, ingenuity, and economics. Therefore, there never was a problem and we can all go marching merrily into future with no limits in food, space, raw materials, or energy. This is religion, not reality. That it should become the intellectual basis on which our current government functions is travesty. YES, read The Ultimate Resource 2. But don't stop there. When you find yourself bewildered by Simon's concepts like the "non-finiteness" of resources or the idea of 500 billion human beings on this planet (there are six billion now), read the Ehrlichs' most recent work, The Betrayal of Science and Reason.
Rating: 
Summary: Corporate-based revisionist propaganda. Don't bother.
Review: Simon and others of his ilk who talk about the wonderful world we live in do so from the luxury of 6- or 7-figure incomes in the First World. He argues that the more people we have, the more likely one will become an Einstein and solve all our problems. This is Salvationistic thinking at its worst, and it's clear from his writings that he's never visited the slums of Bangkok, Haiti, or Rio...or even Washington, DC. While his writings provide rationalization and succor for rich white men, reassuring them that they play no role in the ongoing misery of the 4/5ths of the planet who live on less than $10/day, they do not reflect reality at all -- unless it's the reality of a Manhattan penthouse condo. If you want the real story, read "Divided Planet: The Ecology of Rich and Poor" or "Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight" or "When Corporations Rule The World," all available here on amazon.com.
Rating:
Summary: Long reading, but a profound message
Review: Simon has the courage to say, what most pepole don't want to hear. Humans will always invent itself out of troubles. And it has always done so, as history proves impressivly. He repeats himself fairly often, but is'nt it necessesary to repeat again and again what he has to say?
Rating:
Summary: An accessible, brilliant magnum opus on population economics
Review: Simon's premise is simple: direct measures of material, human well-being correlate positively with population growth and there is no theoretical upper limit. Simply put, things are getting better and better, not in spite of population growth, but because of it! The reason is simple as well: the "ultimate resource" is human imagination and we will not only never run out of it, but we will get more of it as population increases. This sounds crazy (and I thought Simon was a kook the first time I heard of him), but Simon lays out his theory in detail and shows the overwhelming empirical evidence in favor of it. Simon is not a lone nut, either. The scholarly work in the field of population economics solidly supports his view, even if he may overstate his case sometimes. This is an update of the original book, so Simon has a chance to answer the critics of the first edition. The poor quality of the critics' arguments, along with their ad hominem attacks, reveals why environmentalist doomsaying is a sad, pathetic, quasi-religion that bitterly opposes examining the facts.
Rating:
Summary: An accessible, brilliant magnum opus on population economics
Review: Simon's premise is simple: direct measures of material, human well-being correlate positively with population growth and there is no theoretical upper limit. Simply put, things are getting better and better, not in spite of population growth, but because of it! The reason is simple as well: the "ultimate resource" is human imagination and we will not only never run out of it, but we will get more of it as population increases. This sounds crazy (and I thought Simon was a kook the first time I heard of him), but Simon lays out his theory in detail and shows the overwhelming empirical evidence in favor of it. Simon is not a lone nut, either. The scholarly work in the field of population economics solidly supports his view, even if he may overstate his case sometimes. This is an update of the original book, so Simon has a chance to answer the critics of the first edition. The poor quality of the critics' arguments, along with their ad hominem attacks, reveals why environmentalist doomsaying is a sad, pathetic, quasi-religion that bitterly opposes examining the facts.
Rating:
Summary: Great info. A little long and repetitive.
Review: The book is an optimistic view of the future of society. It is a welcome relief from the overwhelming tide of bad news based on misinformation that comes from people who have made a lot of money from writing gloomy but inaccurate predictions. Here is a man whose predictions have come true. He bet Paul Ehrlich in 1980 that the combined prices of any five commodities Ehrlich cared to name would fall over any time period that Ehrlich cared to choose. The deal was that the loser would make up the difference in price over the period. The maximum that Ehrlich could have lost was $1000, while Simon could have lost his shirt (except that, as Simon put it, the bet was "like shooting fish in a barrel"). Ehrlich paid Simon $576.07 after the inflation-corrected prices of all five of the metals he chose fell between 1980 and 1990. Simon's book is based on long-term economic trends. The world has been getting a better place for people for thousands of years, and Simon suggests that life will continue to improve. While the book is, for the most part, a joy to read, it is a trifle long and repetitive. I think it would have benefitted from slightly better editing. However, I commend the book to anyone interested in the future of man and the planet.
Rating:
Summary: Environmentalists are afraid of this book.
Review: The current environmental movement operates under three basic ideas. First, the condition of the environment is getting worse. Secondly, capitalism and economic growth are bad for the environment. Third, in order to help the environment, we must have massive increases in the size of government. In this book, Julian Simon shows that everything the environmentalists have been saying is wrong. First, in the past century, the quality of the environment has gotten better. For example, the pollution that comes from automobiles today is less dangerous than the infectious disease that was spread by horse waste 100 years ago. Secondly, economic growth and technology make is easier to develop, and pay for, newer, cleaner technologies to keep the environment clean. Third, private property rights, private ownership, free markets, and capitalism are the best way to take care of the environment. Most environmentalists are left wing socialist types who are in favor of massive increases in the size of government. Of course, these environmentalists comletely ignore the fact that Eastern Europe, after 50 years of having no private property rights whatsoever, became the most polluted area that the world has ever had. During colonial days in America, buffalo, which were onwed by nobody, were nearly hunted to extinction. But today, cattle, which are privately owned, are not in danger of going extinct. When property is privately owned, the owner will take good care of it. In a free market economy, prices are constantly changing. This gives consumers, and producers, all of the necessary information that they need, in order to determine how to best use resources. For example, whenever there's a big freeze in Florida, the price or oranges goes up. This is why we never have shortages of oranges. This is an example of the free market in action. If you are an environmentalist, then you will hate this book. If you beleive in rational, logical thinking, then you will love this book.
|
