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Quote by Julian Simon

“Not understanding the process of a spontaneously-ordered economy goes hand-in-hand with not understanding the creation of resources and wealth. And when a person does not understand the creation of resources and wealth, the only intellectual alternative is to believe that increasing wealth must be at the cost of someone else. This belief that our good fortune must be an exploitation of others may be the taproot of false prophecy about doom that our evil ways must bring upon us.”

Quote by Julian Simon

Author

Julian Simon
Julian Simon

Julian Simon was an American economist known for his unique views on resource scarcity and population growth. He conducted extensive research in the field of economics, particularly in resource and population economics. Professor Simon's theories and research findings have had a profound impact on policymakers and the academic community worldwide. more

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“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.”

“Our supplies of natural resources are not finite in any economic sense. Nor does past experience give reason to expect natural resources to become more scarce. Rather, if history is any guide, natural resources will progressively become less costly, hence less scarce, and will constitute a smaller proportion of our expenses in future years.”

“Based on first-hand evidence of your own senses - the improved health and later ages at which acquaintances die nowadays as compared with the past; the material goods that we now possess; the speed at which information, entertainment, and we ourselves move freely throughout the world - it seems to me that a person must be literally deaf and blind not to perceive that humanity is in a much better state than ever before.”

“It's good to go back and look at what other states are doing. For example, Mayo Clinics and the University of Minnesota had a collaborative grant program that we modeled our program after, so we went back to talk to them about the successes of their program. It's been very successful, the state is going back to fund it again, and it's resulted in a great deal of collaboration and specifically patented technology.”