Dark Horses

No question about it, the intellectual counter-reformation has begun where the issue of growth versus no-growth is concerned. For at least a decade and a half the no-growthers have had things pretty much their way, at least in the public prints. Now they find their position under attack, even by liberals. The other day, for example, a book outlining a liberal defense of economic growth crossed my desk. It argued—of course—that the state, not the marketplace, should be the arbiter of such growth, but then the fastest readers are not necessarily the fastest learners. If it is unreasonable for liberals to expect President Reagan to rebuild the economy overnight, it is unreasonable for free-market advocates to expect discredited socialists to recant after only nine months’ tutelage in the principles of the free economy. After all, they were never introduced to them in college.

The Ultimate Resource (Princeton, $14.50), by Julian L. Simon, is perhaps the most sophisticated book I have read stating the counter-reformation’s position. When Simon began his researches, his ideas on the subjects of growth, overpopulation, and depletion of resources were pretty much the standard boilerplate of the age, and of his milieu. Human beings were selfishly and stupidly overpopulating the globe; using up precious resources; destroying arable land; poisoning God’s green earth; killing wildlife; driving themselves nuts through the sheer wacky density of their numbers.

CW

About the Author

Chilton Williamson Jr.

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No question about it, the intellectual counter-reformation has begun where the issue of growth versus no-growth is concerned. For at least a decade and a half the no-growthers have had things pretty much their way, at least in the public prints. Now they find their position under attack, even by liberals. The other day, for example, a book outlining a liberal defense of economic growth crossed my desk. It argued—of course—that the state, not the marketplace, should be the arbiter of such growth, but then the fastest readers are not necessarily the fastest learners. If it is unreasonable for liberals to expect President Reagan to rebuild the economy overnight, it is unreasonable for free-market advocates to expect discredited socialists to recant after only nine months’ tutelage in the principles of the free economy. After all, they were never introduced to them in college.

The Ultimate Resource (Princeton, $14.50), by Julian L. Simon, is perhaps the most sophisticated book I have read stating the counter-reformation’s position. When Simon began his researches, his ideas on the subjects of growth, overpopulation, and depletion of resources were pretty much the standard boilerplate of the age, and of his milieu. Human beings were selfishly and stupidly overpopulating the globe; using up precious resources; destroying arable land; poisoning God’s green earth; killing wildlife; driving themselves nuts through the sheer wacky density of their numbers.