The late Julian Simon, compelling economics professor at the University of Illinois, wrote, “Technology exists now to produce in virtually inexhaustible quantities just about all the products made by nature. We have in our hands now the technology to feed, clothe and supply energy to an ever growing population for the next seven billion years.”
To that I say Time Editor Richard Stengel and Professor Julian Simon’s spirit should climb into a rowboat together so they can paddle toward LaLa Land. On their journey, stop by China, India, Mexico and Bangladesh for a dose of reality.
What’s that reality? Last year, Denver, Colorado suffered rolling blackouts because we didn’t have enough natural gas to heat our homes. Of natural gas, an expert on gas production, Mr. Moniz wrote that, “U.S. consumption represents half of that for the industrialized world…with China, Central and South America expecting to triple their usage over the next 20 years.”
Where does that leave you and me, average citizens of the United States as our leaders shove this population juggernaut down our throats?
As Dr. Albert Bartlett said, “Population growth is given as a cause of the problems identified, but eliminating the cause is not mentioned as a solution. We are prescribing aspirin for cancer.”
Please consider three definite outcomes by famous economist Kenneth Boulding, who is a tad sharper than Julian Simon. Boulding offers these three theorems that face our children.
The Dismal Theorem: If the only ultimate check on the growth of populations is misery, then the population will grow until it is miserable enough to stop growth.
The Utterly Dismal Theorem: Any technical improvement can only relieve misery for a while, for so long as misery is the only check on population, the improvement will enable more people to live in misery than before. The final result of improvements, therefore, is to increase the equilibrium population, which is to increase the sum total of human misery.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
