56 Facts About Julian Simon

Julian Simon was a professor of economics and business administration at the University of Illinois from 1963 to 1983 before later moving to the University of Maryland, where he taught for the remainder of his academic career.

Julian Simon is best known for his work on population, natural resources, and immigration.

Julian Simon is sometimes associated with cornucopian views and as a critic of Malthusianism.

Rather than focus on the abundance of nature, Julian Simon focused on lasting economic benefits from continuous population growth, even despite limited or finite physical resources, primarily by the power of human ingenuity to create substitutes, and from technological progress.

Ehrlich bet that the prices for five metals would increase over a decade, while Julian Simon took the opposite stance.

Julian Simon won the bet, as the prices for the metals sharply declined during that decade.

Julian Simon was born in Newark, New Jersey, on February 12,1932.

Julian Simon grew up in a Jewish family that migrated to Newark as part of a wave of Jews who moved into the suburbs.

Julian Simon's grandparents owned a hardware store in the city's downtown.

At age 14, Julian Simon joined the Boy Scouts of America and became an Eagle Scout.

At Harvard, Julian Simon was a member of its Reserve Officers' Training Corps program and attended on a full scholarship provided by the Holloway Plan.

Julian Simon was active as a member of the university's debate team.

From 1953 to 1956, Simon served as an officer in the US Navy on USS Samuel B Roberts.

Julian Simon was stationed at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina for the US Marine Corps.

Julian Simon came under the influence of economists Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek, and Theodore Schultz, who were all based at the university.

Julian Simon had moved to New York with his wife, Rita James, to start a business.

Julian Simon's time owning a personal business would have an effect on his economic perspectives.

Julian Simon would spend most of his adult life in academia.

Julian Simon published widely on topics concerning advertising and marketing, later broadly researching subjects from library storage to suicide to airline overbooking.

Julian Simon used his previous experience in marketing towards promoting birth control; articles he published recommended campaigns for family planning.

Julian Simon drew the attention of W Parker Mauldin of the Population Council, who arranged for him to visit India to research possible ways to advertise birth control.

Kuznets and Easterlin argued that the historical data demonstrated that population growth had no negative effect on economic growth; Julian Simon credited their findings as leading to his skeptic outlook.

Julian Simon came to be influenced by Danish economist Ester Boserup, who found that, in contrast to Thomas Malthus, a growing population determined the most efficient agricultural practices.

In February 1970, Julian Simon took the place of psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton to speak at a faculty forum in his home city of Urbana, Illinois.

Julian Simon spoke to a large audience; after Planned Parenthood president Alan Frank Guttmacher finished giving his address, Julian Simon delivered his skeptical view questioning whether growth and scarcity posed a threat to society.

In 1969, Julian Simon was named as a professor of economics and business administration at the University of Illinois, and would remain in that position until 1983.

Julian Simon wrote primarily in economic, demographic, and developmental journals.

Julian Simon took an aggressive approach in attacking what had been the dominant consensus on population growth.

Julian Simon issued rhetorical challenges that distinguished him from and went further than other economists.

Julian Simon was a member of the American Economics Association, the American Statistics Association, and the Population Association of America.

Julian Simon's rebuttals, published in Science journal and The Washington Post, were aimed at environmental doomers.

Julian Simon's highly publicized engagements earned him celebrity status as a scientist.

Julian Simon believed that technological advancements would reduce scarcity and so he predicted a decrease in prices over time.

Julian Simon ultimately won the bet, with all five metals dropping in price.

In 1995, Julian Simon issued a challenge for a second bet.

Ehrlich offered Julian Simon a set of 15 metrics over 10 years, victor to be determined by scientists chosen by the president of the National Academy of Sciences in 2005.

Ehrlich refused to leave out measures considered by Julian Simon to be immaterial.

Julian Simon argues that our notions of increasing resource scarcity ignore the long-term declines in wage-adjusted raw material prices.

Julian Simon argues that population is the solution to resource scarcities and environmental problems, since people and markets innovate.

Julian Simon's ideas were praised by Nobel Laureate economists Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman, the latter in a 1998 foreword to The Ultimate Resource II, but they have attracted critics such as Paul R Ehrlich, Albert Allen Bartlett and Herman Daly.

Julian Simon examined different raw materials, especially metals and their prices in historical times.

Julian Simon assumed that besides temporary shortfalls, in the long run prices for raw materials remain at similar levels or even decrease.

Julian Simon's 1984 book The Resourceful Earth, is a similar criticism of the conventional wisdom on population growth and resource consumption and a direct response to the Global 2000 report.

Julian Simon was skeptical, in 1994, of claims that human activity caused global environmental damage, notably in relation to CFCs, ozone depletion and climate change.

Julian Simon claimed that numerous environmental damage and health dangers from pollution were "definitely disproved".

Julian Simon was the first to suggest that airlines should provide incentives for travelers to give up their seats on overbooked flights, rather than arbitrarily taking random passengers off the plane.

Julian Simon gave away his idea to federal de-regulators and never received any personal profit from his solution.

Julian Simon wrote a memoir, A Life Against the Grain, which was published by his wife after his death.

Julian Simon argued that people do not become poorer as the population expands; increasing numbers produce what they needed to support themselves, and have and will prosper while food prices sink.

Julian Simon therefore argued physical limitations play a minor role and shortages of raw materials tend to be local and temporary.

Herman Daly, an American ecological and Georgist economist, criticized Julian Simon for committing profound mistakes and exaggerations, for denial of resource finitude and for his views that neither ecology nor entropy exists.

Julian Simon was remembered as a traditionalist Jew who did not work on the Sabbath.

Julian Simon emphasized empirical data in arguments and had a combative personality which enjoyed rhetorical exchanges.

Julian Simon's wife, Rita James, was a former socialist activist; they met while students at the University of Chicago and married during that period.

Julian Simon was a longtime member of the faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and later became a public affairs professor at American University.

Julian Simon studied the psychology of depression and wrote a book on overcoming it.