Human ingenuity takes flight

By Tom Quiner

Man will never run out of natural resources.

This idea separates liberals and conservatives. Conservatives view human ingenuity as the “ultimate resource,” to quote the title of a watershed book written by the late, great economist, Julian Simon.

Where liberals try to cheat the laws of supply and demands with mandates and onerous regulation, conservatives view the laws of the marketplace as the catalyst to innovation, change, and the advancement of human civilization.

Where liberals view more people as a burden, fueling a philosophy that views human life as disposable, conservatives see these same people as an opportunity, the source of new creativity, innovation, and knowledge.

Julian Simon expressed the conservative philosophy well:

“Adding more people causes problems. But people are also the means to solve these problems. The main fuel to speed the world’s progress is our stock of knowledge; the brakes are our lack of imagination and unsound social regulations of these activities. The ultimate resource is people—especially skilled, spirited, and hopeful young people endowed with liberty—who will exert their wills and imaginations for their own benefits, and so inevitably they will benefit the rest of us as well.”

I was taken by the video above. I remember being in third grade talking with some of my buddies. We all wanted to build “air cars.” Well, people are doing it now. The video above displays some incredible inventions. Each inventor approaches the challenge in a different way, each ingenious in its own right.

Human ingenuity is a godsend. But it requires people. Public policy that encourages the disposability of humanity is a direct assault on our hope for the future.

 

1 Comment

  1. d. knapp on January 11, 2017 at 7:06 pm

    It doesnt even have to be incredible achievement of history that makes all humans potentially positive in the lives of many. The left views poor children as better off not born. The argument wasnt so loud when I was born, but my early life certainly fit the criteria. Poverty determined much of my early and even adult outcomes. I was supposed to be a drop out, unmarried mom, impoverished and addicted. Prison perhaps would be in my future. Instead, I b/c an RN. I worked harder than most to get here, and it’s not historically important. I HAVE, though, saved people’s lives. People had more time w/ family b/c I was there and cared. Others have said that I brought great comfort to their dying loved ones and themselves w/ my “loving way”. Out there are countless babies waiting to make a great difference in the lives of 1 or more people, who might otherwise be miserable or suffer needlessly, if they are not there to do their good works.The world is better off for each new life it brings. An awful lot of middle and upper class babies grew up to do some of the most horrific things ever. I wish the left understood that it’s the individual unknown until they are grown and not the beginnings of life that determine how history remembers a person most.