search the website

Contact | Links

Book Review

Population: The Ultimate Resource

The book Population: The Ultimate Resource with its collection of essays by Peter T.Bauer, Sauvik Chakraverti, Nicholas Ebestadt, Deepak Lal and Julian L. Simon tries to clarify the misconception people have about population being the ultimate hindering force for economic development. The essays with their simple language and arguments along with facts and examples of countries and periods throughout history try to show how population in actual reality has helped the world economy prosper.  The essays explain the idea that although a growing population causes shortages in the short term, it however leads to economic development in long run since it gives entrepreneurs opportunities to seek new ways to satisfy the consumer’s needs. Despite some of the entrepreneurs’ ideas being failures, the ones that succeed provide consumers a better option than before.

Every essay in the book has shown links between growing population and development. For instance, Deepak Lal’s essay ‘Population and long-run economic growth in India’ show’s how the growing population had contributed to the advancement of the agricultural field in India. He says it is due to the increase in labor force which helped in agricultural expansion extensively apart from the Green revolution states.

All the essay contradict the Malthusian theory that population growth induces economic and social downturn. Additionally, they also raise questions against issues like population policy, overpopulation, family planning and national policies made to control the population of the country and its help in the development compelling the reader to think about their justification. Nicholas Eberstadht in his essay Population policy: Ideology as science questions the ideals of population policy by stating, “Interventions in education, health, housing, regional planning and other areas may have demographic consequences, but they are justified on other grounds. On what grounds would a policy whose primary aim is to induce demographic change be justified?” The essays also answer to the question like why urban areas are rich and how by urbanization people opt for smaller families, which helps in attaining economic affluence.

All the seven essays focus on the idea of ‘Population Brings Prosperity’ elaborating on the human nature which is economic and how growing human population contributes to the development of the world.

The essays clear all the misconception about population growth illustrating how population growth has helped in the increasing mortality rate to agricultural development in India and immigrants. Julian Simon has justified the world wide misconception regarding immigrants by showing how they have economically benefited the countries they’ve migrated to citing example of America. He states that, “Contrary to popular opinion, legal immigrants to the United States bestow important economic benefits upon natives. These include a reduced burden of social security y taxes without reduction in benefits increases productivity and entrepreneurial shot in the arm to business, and new vitality and cultural diversity.”

For someone who believes that the growing world population is a threat to economic development, the insightful essays in the book will help to understand the actual relation between population and prosperity.


For More Book Reviews Click Here:


| More

Upcoming Events

  • Discussion on Liberty (Internal Event)

    Thu, 09 September, 2010 | 02:00 pm onwards

    Samriddhi's Office

  • Lecture Series by Dr. Bhola Nath Chalise (Internal event)

    Fri, 10 September, 2010 | 05:00 pm onwards

  • Boot Camp

    Sat, 18 September, 2010 | 09:30 am onwards

    Hotel Radisson, Lazimpat, Kathmandu.

  • Last Thursdays Entrepreneurs Speak

    Thu, 30 September, 2010 | 05:30 pm onwards

    Dwarika's Hotel, Battisputali

FEATURED ARTICLE [view all]

  • Freedom and equality: when are they mutually exclusive?

    by Sarita Sapkota | 02 September, 2010

    In the article 'Seven Principles of Sound Public Policy', Lawrence W. Reed stated his first principle as "Free people are not equal, and equal people are not free". Not referring to equality as the equality before law and purely taking it in a sense of material wealth, many people I know find the statement agreeable but somehow they don't like the sound of it and in a political setting like ours, its only predictable.

VIEWPOINT [view all]

  • काठमाडौंबासीहरुको बिजोग ।

    by Surath Giri | 02 September, 2010

    एकपल्ट फेरी काठमाडौंबासीहरुको बिजोग भएको छ । कथित सुकिला मुकिलाहरुको घर ,चोक र गल्लि-गल्लीमा फोहोरको डुङुर जम्मा भएको छ । कारण फोहोर फाल्न प्रयोग गरिरखिएको ठाउँ -ओखरपौवा-बासीको अबरोध । फोहोर फाल्ने जिम्मा पायेको काठमाडौं महानगरपालिकाको भरपुर प्रयासका बाबजुद गत एक हप्ता देखि काठमाडौंको फोहोर उठ्न सकिराखेको थिएन ।

Entrepreneur's Corner [view all]

  • “Cooking is my hobby and that is what brought me to the meat products sector.”

    24 June, 2010

    Chandra Tiwari of Nina and Hager a brand name in the Nepal market of meat and processing shared his experience and journey as an entrepreneur at Last Thursdays on May 27th 2010, organized by Entrepreneurs of Nepal and Samriddhi, The Prosperity Foundation.

Samriddhi Poll

Samriddhi Poll

Book of the Month [view all]

  • Facts, not Fear.

    Environmentalist has mostly aimed school children to misinform with the help of textbook. Kids and young people are taught that Earth is moving on the brink of destruction and will be pushed into the unfathomed depth if their mothers use one more polystyrene cup.

Samriddhi Store [view all]

More Opportunities [view all]


Find Samriddhi on Facebook

Find Samriddhi on Twitter