The Optimism of Julian Simon and Paul Erlich

In the 1970s, there were all kinds of hysterics that we're running out of stuff. Julian Simon said to Paul Erlich, pick any five commodities over a timeframe of five or 10 years. And I bet you the price of those commodities is going to be lower at the end of that period than it is at the beginning of that period. And indeed, that is exactly what happened. So not only did we not run out as the maltuzians would have expected, we had more of them. Once we get more demand for those things, once demand increases, more people become rich enough to command more of those goods.