Wasting our most precious resource?
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Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
“California’s Central Valley will be the Appalachia of the West” says the Economist. It won’t be if California’s scarce water is traded at market prices, instead of allocated to historic users. That’s the fastest way to maximize the value of our scarce asset. No change will merely enrich a few while producing crops (and goods and services) is lesser value.
Speaking of precious resources, this conservative pundit says that “economic growth depends strongly on an expanding population.” He goes on to equate more babies with more prosperity. I’ve got four objections to his line:
- He’s got it backwards: More prosperity leads to more babies, and even that trend has its limits.*
- “Growth is good” depends on your acceptance of GDP as a measure of happiness, which it isn’t. (It measures trade in the cash economy.)
- He’s missing the (negative) environmental impact of more people.
- Many economic “problems” with smaller populations result from Ponzi scheme policies that require the young to pay for the old (as with social security). Those polices can be reformed, defusing “demographic timebombs.”
Bottom Line: Many of our problems result from the perverse incentives of bad policies, not human stupidity or natural constraints.
