Julian Simon

The increase in the world's population represents our victory against death...

The increase in the world's population represents our victory against death...

The most important benefit of population size and growth is the increase it brings to the stock of useful knowledge. read more

The most important benefit of population size and growth is the increase it brings to the stock of useful knowledge. Minds matter economically as much as, or more than, hands or mouths.

Greater consumption due to increase in population and growth of income heightens scarcity and induces price run-ups. A higher price read more

Greater consumption due to increase in population and growth of income heightens scarcity and induces price run-ups. A higher price represents an opportunity that leads inventors and businesspeople to seek new ways to satisfy the shortages. Some fail, at cost to themselves. A few succeed, and the final result is that we end up better off than if the original shortage problems had never arisen. That is, we need our problems, though this does not imply that we should purposely create additional problems for ourselves.

Because we can expect future generations to be richer than we are, no matter what we do about resources, asking read more

Because we can expect future generations to be richer than we are, no matter what we do about resources, asking us to refrain from using resources now so that future generations can have them later is like asking the poor to make gifts to the rich.

The essence of wealth is the capacity to control the forces of nature, and the extent of wealth depends upon read more

The essence of wealth is the capacity to control the forces of nature, and the extent of wealth depends upon the level of technology and the ability to create new knowledge.