Simon: The most important and exciting event that's occurred in the whole history of civilization
has occurred in the last 200 years in the richest countries in the world. Two hundred
years ago in France, which was then the richest country in the world, the chance of a person
who was born of living beyond the age of 27, 28, 29, was just about 50/50.
That was the life expectancy of the average person in the richest country in world...less than 30 years.
And it had been less than 30 years for 10,000 years, 20,000 years, a very, very long time.
Very little had happened over the whole history of the human enterprise.
And then just in the past 200 years which is a mere blip in history, life expectancy at birth has grown
up from under 30 to well over 70 in the rich countries in the world.
And the poorer countries of the world, another extraordinary achievement has occurred.
In just the 30 or 40 years since World War II, life expectancy has gone up 15 or 20 years throughout the
whole, poor
part of the world. So I ask you, has anything else that's ever happened in human history
come close to this and its importance? This has meant that people have not only lived
longer, but they're getting healthier and they're living better lives.
Our material lives, too, have been getting better rather than getting worse. The newspaper stories
you customarily read would tell you that we should be worrying about running out of natural
resources, copper, wheat, what have you. But the history of the past 200 years, in fact
the whole history of humanity, has shown us the extraordinary
event contrary to all common sense.
That the more that we use of natural resources, the more we have of them.
That is rather then natural resources becoming more scarce as we use them, they have been
becoming more available. When I say more available I mean that when we look at natural resources
with the measure that we as economists use and the measure that's important to us as
consumers. That is how much do we have to pay to get these resources.
We see that the price of natural resources has been going down rather then up throughout all of human
history. Let's take an example, if you want a ton of copper delivered on your front lawn
it would only cost you about 1/20th as much of the most valuable thing you have which
is your human time to earn enough to buy a ton of copper as it did 200 years ago.
And it would only take you about one two thousandth as much of your time now to earn enough to
buy a ton of copper as it would've 4,000 years ago. And it's the same story with every single
natural resource. It's the same with iron. It's the same with aluminum. It's the same,
you name it, it's the same story that all of the natural resources and that includes
all the foods; wheat and corn and rice, all of them have become more available rather
then more scarce contrary to all common sense, to all standard malthusian thinking.