Julian Simon & US Population at 300 MM

The impending arrival of the US population at 300 million is bound to prompt declinist caterwauling. Thus it is a good time to resurrect the thinking of Julian Simon, and Don at Cafe Hayek does just that prompted by a John Tierney column in the NYTimes. Tierney hits the nail on the head - overpopulation is the old, biggest, marqee, ne plus ultra of declinist arguments. All others flow from it and/or are variations of the theme. Peak Oil. Global Waming. They are at core all the same argument - that humans, by doing what humans do, are screwing up the planet. And each one is fatally constructed in that each refuses to acknowledge the other side of the ledger from the cost side.