Julian Simon: Biography & Theory

Biography

Julian Lincoln Simon is a well known theorist who was born on February 12, 1932. He worked as a professor of business administration at the University of Maryland and a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute. Throughout his lifetime, he had written many books and articles mostly with economic topics. His most prominent topics include, issues dealing with the population, issues with depleting natural resources, and immigration.  His main belief was that there were endless resources that could be obtained from large populations, and that there were no negatives to the continually growing population.

Theory

• The Earth is getting better, not worse
• Population growth is not a problem
• Natural resources are becoming more abundant.
  • Simon argued that we were not running out of food, water, oil, trees, clean air, or any other natural resource because throughout the course of human history the price of natural resources had been declining.
  • Simon’s central point was that “natural resources are not finite in any serious way; they are created by the intellect of man, an always renewable resource.”
• Condition of the environment is improving
• Incomes of the world’s population were rising
• Treat people as assets not liabilities. Simon’s central premise was that people are the ultimate resource. “Human beings,” he wrote, “are not just more mouths to feed, but are productive and inventive minds that help find creative solutions to man’s problems, thus leaving us better off over the long run.”

Proof

In 1980, Paul Ehrlich bet Simon $1,000 that five resources (of Ehrlich’s choosing) would be more expensive in the next 10 years. Ehrlich ultimately lost where in 10 years later every one of the resources had declined in price by an average of 40 percent. Thus, the bet was won by Julian Simon, who had predicted the reduction in price, of these metals. The reduction in prices, was caused by the advancing technology which substituted newer metals with the older ones. This caused the metals such as tungsten, tin, and chromium to decrease in price, because of its limited use.

Pros/Cons

Pro: Julian Simon had made great predictions on the future of the world, based on strong information he had found. This provided hope for the world that there is still some potential of a huge population helping the world, instead of just taking up space.

Con: This is completely applicable to our time, since in fact, inflation does occur. Along with this, the environment is being affected. Global warming has become more noticeable, thus affecting areas all over the world.