HeyBub wrote:
KLS wrote:
So, has either of you read Deep Economy by Bill McKibbin?

http://www.amazon.com/Deep-Economy-W...32064&sr= 8-1

Makes sense to me! (not usually a top poster, but someone might like
to refer to the thread that provoked this response from me)


No, I haven't read it. From the review, however, it's apparent the author is
a loon. His premise seems to be that economic growth, and its consequences,
is untenable. We're running out of natural resources, etc.

This concept is not new - the prophecy of economic doom goes back at at
least to Malthus, with his book "An Essay on the Principle of Population" in
which he postulated "The power of population is indefinitely greater than
the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man."

In 1968, Paul Erlich wrote "The Population Bomb," with the prediction that
we (or at least most of us on the planet) would die by the end of the
1980's. His doomsday scenario was predicated on the belief that we were
running out of the resources necessary to provide for an increased
population.

One of the critics of Ehrlich's hypothesis, was Julian Simon, an economic
theorist. In 1980 Simon proposed, and Ehrlich accepted, a wager. Simon said
to Erhlich, "pick any five commodity metals and I'll wager $1,000 that
they'll be cheaper in a decade." Erhlich agreed to the wager and picked
copper, chrome, nickle, tin, and tungsten. Here are a couple of the prices
(adjusted for inflation):

Chrome - from $3.90/lb in 1980 to $3.70 in 1990.
Tin - from $8.73/lb in 1980 to $3.88 in 1990.

Simon won the bet big time. (Ehrlich also offered to bet $10,000 the Britain
would cease to exist by 1990, but Simon thought that was too silly to fool
with.)

This was in spite of the world's population increasing by 800 million in the
same decade.

I, for one, am not willing to even ENTERTAIN the idea of the wife washing my
shirts by pounding them with a rock on the stream bed.



I don't know either Simon or Ehrlich (although I have heard of
them)..the date was wrong, but clean water is a problem in many areas of
the US. China and India have horrible problems with air and water
pollution. I just saw a headline about California nearing total lack of
water for irrigation of farm fields due to drought (can you say "food
supply"?). They have an energy crisis every time the weather gets hot.
The NW US has a bad drought. N. Atlantic fisheries are badly depleted
of certain fish, like cod. The Gulf of Mexico has cut back severely on
grouper fishing. From all appearances, we are glad to go to war (pick a
reason) to have some control of the oil supply. Clean coal? Guess
there will be jobs for those Americans who don't work at WalMart.