Subject: Loop of the Week

Posted by John Heinbokel on 11/6/2003
In Reply To:Loop of the Week Posted by Kevin Williamson on 11/5/2003

Message:

Kevin,

You've effectively replicated the argument of the late Julian Simon, who argued that the only danger we faced in a world of growing population was a shortage of creativiity with which to address the issues of supply and demand for materials and energy. We once ran a group of college students through a modeling exercise asking half of them to build a computer model that captured Simon's arguments in reference to global food production while the other half built a model reflecting Garret Hardin's views. When everything was compared and normalized, the only difference was whether the "creativity/innovation" factor had some cap or could grow without limit. EVERYthing else in the models was the same.

John Heinbokel
CIESD, LLP & The Vermont Commons School
South Burlington, VT