Superabundance: The Story of Population Growth, Innovation, and Human Flourishing on an Infinitely Bountiful Planet
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- Type：Epub+TxT+PDF+Mobi
- Create Date：2022-10-23 06:53:20
- Update Date：2025-09-06
- Status：finish
- Author：Marian L. Tupy
- ISBN：1952223393
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Summary
Generations of people have been taught to believe that population growth makes resources scarcer。 In 2021， for example， one widely publicized report argued that "the world's rapidly growing population is consuming the planet's natural resources at an alarming rate 。。。 the world currently needs 1。6 Earths to satisfy the demand for natural resources 。。。 [a figure that] could rise to 2 planets by 2030。" But is that true？ In Superabundance， Marian Tupy and Gale Pooley have analyzed prices of hundreds of commodities， goods， and services--with some data going back to 1850。 They found that resources became cheaper or more abundant at an accelerating rate。 That's especially true when examining "time prices" or the length of time that people must work to earn enough money to buy something。 To great surprise， the authors found that resources became more abundant at a faster rate than the population grew--a relationship that they call Superabundance。 On average， every additional human being created more value than they consumed。 This relationship between population growth and abundance is deeply counterintuitive， yet it is no less true。 Why？ Unlike other animals， human beings can innovate their way out of the problems they encounter。 They produce new ideas， which lead to new inventions。 They test those inventions in the marketplace to separate the useful from the useless。 At the end of that process of discovery， they are left with innovations that spur economic growth and raise standards of living。 But more people are not enough to sustain Superabundance--just think of China and India before and after their respective economic reforms in 1978 and 1991。 To innovate， people must be allowed to think， speak， publish， associate， and disagree。 They must be allowed to save， invest， trade and profit。 In a word， they must be free。
Reviews
cameron ross paton
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I thought the book was well written and full of information and ideas that supported the contention that since 1800 we have been on a trajectory of continuous improvement。Starting in the UK then Western Europe and the U。S 。The ideas regarding the crucial role of freedom of ideas， speech and association and trade 。The importance of property rights and the impartial rule of law， stable and democratic government all are laid out。The surprise to the population Malthusian’s is the crucial role that p I thought the book was well written and full of information and ideas that supported the contention that since 1800 we have been on a trajectory of continuous improvement。Starting in the UK then Western Europe and the U。S 。The ideas regarding the crucial role of freedom of ideas， speech and association and trade 。The importance of property rights and the impartial rule of law， stable and democratic government all are laid out。The surprise to the population Malthusian’s is the crucial role that population growth and large cities play in providing that critical mass of talent， innovation， entrepreneurship and customer base that you cannot obtain with a smaller population。However we are in danger as freedom is threatened by forces that are restricting our ability to criticise and question。We are the heirs of unprecedented progress， and enjoy healthier， more stimulating and fulfilling lives than could have been imagined in the past。We need to keep it going。 。。。more
Grant Ryan
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This book will likely become an instant classic due to the rigorous， clear way it clearly shows how much better so many things are getting。 It deserves 5 stars just for that。 Like Stephen Pinker's book Enlightenment now there is also a good discussion on why things have got better and how to make sure they keep getting better。 However I find the more interesting question is why， if things are better， do people feel so despondent about the state of the world？ The main theme in this book is that i This book will likely become an instant classic due to the rigorous， clear way it clearly shows how much better so many things are getting。 It deserves 5 stars just for that。 Like Stephen Pinker's book Enlightenment now there is also a good discussion on why things have got better and how to make sure they keep getting better。 However I find the more interesting question is why， if things are better， do people feel so despondent about the state of the world？ The main theme in this book is that if we give people evidence they will change their mind。 However， there are a range of other reasons that are touched on briefly like our preference for negative news and nostalgia bias that I suspect are more important。 In my book “Comparonomics - why life is better than you think and how to make it better” I identify 20 “feel-bad” factors that make us feel worse than we should。 It would be great to have more people analyzing these things as this is where I think real progress can be made in helping people understand the world and make better decisions。 I love the focus on time as a measure of economic progress but a possible weakness of the analysis is that the core commodities they analyse now take such a small amount of our time that it doesn’t analyse much of what we now deem as important time wise。 However you can take the idea further as a way to measure not just common commodities but you can measure progress on completely new things that have never previously existed。 I propose that the speed at which new things go from impossible to everyone having them is a good way to measure this progress （took many decades for us to all get plumbing but much faster to get internet）。 My analysis of this in Comparonomics concludes that this main part of the economy that we spend most time on is accelerating too。 Things really are getting better making the need to understand why we feel the opposite all the more interesting。 The main reason I couldn’t give the book 5 stars is that it is weirdly political。 The theme that capitalism is good and socialism is bad is maybe tied up in the American view of the words。 I agree that markets and innovation from creative destruction are the reason that we have made so much progress。 But the answer is not always completely free markets。 As we learn things society typically puts rules regulations on the market them to make it better for everyone （don’t allow child labour and slavery， don’t put lead in petrol， don't use CFC’s looking after elderly is good thing to do， giving everyone free roads and education even health is useful for everyone）。While I agree that some environmental doom-saying has gone way too far in some cases it is also the reason we make some much progress at solving things like ozone layer or lead poisoning。 My personal conclusion from learning that we are much better off than is commonly thought means I’m much happier to allocate resources to fix issues like de-carbonising the economy。 History shows that as we get richer we allocate more resources to fixing environmental issues and this analysis shows we are vastly better off。 I think this makes more sense to allocate resources to the climate change problem that is clearly a significant environmental challenge that needs addressing。While most of the review pointed out some points for improvement I’d really like to acknowledge the valuable contribution of the core analysis about the improvements not captured by conventional economics - great addition to understanding progress。 。。。more
SeaShore
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Published 2022
Pete
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Superabundance: The Story of Population Growth， Innovation， and Human Flourishing on an Infinitely Bountiful Planet （2022） by Marian Tupy and Gale Pooley is a very good book that showcases some original research and calculations by Tupy and Pooley was well as examining the work of others on human progress。 Tupy is the editor for Human Progress and Pooley is a professor at Brigham Young Hawaii。Superabundance takes the work of the economist Julian Simon and also William Nordhaus and expands the qu Superabundance: The Story of Population Growth， Innovation， and Human Flourishing on an Infinitely Bountiful Planet （2022） by Marian Tupy and Gale Pooley is a very good book that showcases some original research and calculations by Tupy and Pooley was well as examining the work of others on human progress。 Tupy is the editor for Human Progress and Pooley is a professor at Brigham Young Hawaii。Superabundance takes the work of the economist Julian Simon and also William Nordhaus and expands the quantification of how humans have advanced and how people have become richer。 That is the inflation adjusted price of various commodities and commonly bought items is taken and the amount that the average blue collar and unskilled worker in the US and globally can purchase is compared over time。 A ‘Time Price’ is calculated， that is the time taken to earn the money to buy the quantity is calculated。 The abundance for a person and the abundance for the population is then compared over time。It sounds somewhat mundane but has huge implications。 It shows that presently and if trends continue then there is an increasing abundance of most commodities and items that is outpacing population and wealth growth。 The authors define this increase as a ‘superabundance’。 If the time price remains constant despite increasing population and abundance the authors define this as an abundance。The book is divided into three parts。 The first is a justification of their quantification work。 Here the Malthusian proposition is described and the works of various people on how famine and resource exhaustion was just around the corner is outline。 This culminates in a description of the work of Paul Ehrlich and his famous bet with Julian Simon that a given quantity of metals would drop in price over the 1980s。 Simon won。 Also given that Ehrlich had not just been predicting the price of metals would increase but that there would be mass starvation Simon really showed Ehrlich’s hypothesis to be utterly wrong。The second part of the book describes the work of quantifying the increasing purchasing power of blue collar and unskilled worked over various time periods。 This is a very impressive piece of work that extends both Simon’s work and William Norhaus’s work on how long it takes to earn the money to pay for lighting by workers over time。The book also includes some work on the incredible improvements in some technological goods， such as large screen TVs， over time。 The improving quality of cars and the increase in the amount of housing by floor space is also included。The third part of the book is on Human Flourishing and It’s Enemies。 This is the weakest part of the book and it’s not required。 Their initial description of the history of the Malthusian Hypothesis does enough in this regard。The counterpoint to the work is that fossil fuels may， in future， actually be a break on human welfare。 The work of Vaclav Smil is well worth considering regarding this issue。 Smil’s point that the amount of energy required for most products， in particular for food， is very pertinent。 Superabundance does， however， make the point that nuclear fission and hopefully soon nuclear fusion will be able to provide effectively infinite energy in the medium term。Superabundance is a really good book that gives a great， new， quantitative description of how much wealthier people have become over the past hundred and fifty years。 By carefully quantifying how much better off humanity has become the author’s have provided a worthy update to the work of Julian Simon。 。。。more
Russell Wardrop
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read and be amazed。Think you know about how lucky （or unlucky） we are？ You know almost nothing and what you think you know is probably wrong。
Brad Bevers
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One of my favorite book genres is 'optimism。' With so much negative coverage in the news， in politics， and basically everywhere else， I always find it worthwhile and refreshing to look at any good news。 This book's main argument is that the world has become surprisingly， unbelievably better in the past 200 years。 At the same time， the world's population has grown from about 1 billion people to almost 8 billion。 Almost no one was expecting or predicting the unprecedented changes we have seen for One of my favorite book genres is 'optimism。' With so much negative coverage in the news， in politics， and basically everywhere else， I always find it worthwhile and refreshing to look at any good news。 This book's main argument is that the world has become surprisingly， unbelievably better in the past 200 years。 At the same time， the world's population has grown from about 1 billion people to almost 8 billion。 Almost no one was expecting or predicting the unprecedented changes we have seen for the better over that time period。 The author's argue this explosive economic growth has happened not in spite of the population boom， but because of it。One really helpful tool that the authors focus on throughout this book is the concept of 'time price。' Instead of looking at the actual price of things across time， they figure out the number of working hours it took to buy an item on average vs。 the number of hours it takes now to buy the same item。 This method has the advantage of getting rid of any inflation and making it much easier to look at a wider scope when evaluating change。 One great example towards the end of the book they use to demonstrate this is the cost of a 42" flatscreen television between 1997 and 2019。 The cost in 1997 was $15，000 and in 2019 was only $148。 Great， but the time price change was even more dramatic， from 828 hours of work to afford a television to 4。6 hours。This was written for the public， but its full of formulas and charts that were borderline too much information for me。 It's the type of book that you can flip through and learn something really useful， and also sit down and read through cover to cover。 Loved this one， highly recommended。 。。。more
Simeon Payne
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The general thesis of this book is absolutely spot on - we are way richer， healthier and live longer safer lives than anyone in the past。 The economic paradgim used is also spot on - measure how long it takes you in hours to "earn" a purchase， and the bottom line is everything is way cheaper and more accessible。The book is also correct that environmentalism and death is a new secular religion。 The reason for my low review is that the book also contains a major incorrect thought process that pops The general thesis of this book is absolutely spot on - we are way richer， healthier and live longer safer lives than anyone in the past。 The economic paradgim used is also spot on - measure how long it takes you in hours to "earn" a purchase， and the bottom line is everything is way cheaper and more accessible。The book is also correct that environmentalism and death is a new secular religion。 The reason for my low review is that the book also contains a major incorrect thought process that pops up a number of times in different ways throughout teh chapters， that somehow Christianity as a religion is the party of guilt of planting these negative seeds。 Christian thought is very wide and， as an example， eschatology （end times theology） is not seen as negaltive nor the world as being in terminal demise。 These broad and indescriminate brushstrkes diminsh what is otherwise a very good text。 。。。more
John McHugh
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Quite a remarkable book， revisiting some of the most basic concepts in economics with a more fundamental tool: the concept of "time prices"。In reality the cost of any good from bread to iphones is not in dolars， but in the time we spent to earn it。 Using this perspective， one quickly sees that the cost of many goods has fallen precipitously over the decades。 My hope is that in subsequent works， the authours will not only dwell on succeses （eg televisions or song downloads） but also thorny cosr i Quite a remarkable book， revisiting some of the most basic concepts in economics with a more fundamental tool: the concept of "time prices"。In reality the cost of any good from bread to iphones is not in dolars， but in the time we spent to earn it。 Using this perspective， one quickly sees that the cost of many goods has fallen precipitously over the decades。 My hope is that in subsequent works， the authours will not only dwell on succeses （eg televisions or song downloads） but also thorny cosr issues like housing， health care and climate change and offer solutions。 。。。more
Jshill
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Finally！ This is an update to the work of Julian Simon who died in 1998。 Pooley and Tupy have done a meticulous job of updating and expanding upon Simon’s work。 The human mind is the greatest resource。 Creating more minds （increase the population） will necessarily increase other resources as well。 This is very optimistic book but it does document the sad truth: There are many people / organizations today that actually think that human beings are a burden to the planet rather than a blessing。 Thi Finally！ This is an update to the work of Julian Simon who died in 1998。 Pooley and Tupy have done a meticulous job of updating and expanding upon Simon’s work。 The human mind is the greatest resource。 Creating more minds （increase the population） will necessarily increase other resources as well。 This is very optimistic book but it does document the sad truth: There are many people / organizations today that actually think that human beings are a burden to the planet rather than a blessing。 This book is an antidote to counteract that Malthusian nonsense。 。。。more
Ebookwormy1
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