LOSS OF AN IRREPLACEABLE RESOURCE

Julian Simon wrote that the supply of resources is not effectively finite because resources are created by the minds and efforts of men. His scholarship proved that this hypothesis is generally correct. It is for this reason that the real cost of most commodities steadily decreases as supplies are increased through the knowledge, ingenuity, and efforts of human beings.

Julian Simon's thoughts and writings comprise an absolutely essential pillar of resistance to the population reducers and pseudoenviron-mentalists. It may be that the work of this one scholar is the most important single blow that has ever been directed against the enemies of technology and free enterprise.

Wattenberg writes, "If the real resource was the human intellect, Simon reasoned, and the amount of human intellect was increasing, both quantitatively through population growth and qualitatively through education, then the supply of resources would grow, outrunning demand, pushing prices down and giving people more access to what they wanted, with more than enough left over to deal with pollution and congestion.'' Also, Simon realized that "human intellect could best be transformed into beneficial goods and services in an atmosphere of political and economic liberty.''

Wattenberg also reports that "Julian was a traditionalist. He did not work on the Sabbath, and the Friday Sabbath dinner at the Simon house was always a gentle and joyous celebration.''

It is a remarkable tribute that just the Wattenburg obituary of Julian Simon contains more fundamental economic knowledge than the entire published works of many well-known authorities.