The aggregate data on the condition of farmland and the rate of erosion do not support the concern about soil erosion. The data suggest that the condition of cropland has been improving rather than worsening. Still, there is one resource that the world does not have enough of, that's actually getting rarer, according to Julian Simon. Simon started off as a card-carrying antigrowth, antipopulation zealot. And indeed, if we rehearse it now, it sounds like a faultless proof, clear and compelling, even watertight.
Subsistence increases only in an arithmetical ratio.
A slight acquaintance with numbers will show the immensity of the first power in comparison of the second. As a point of abstract mathematics, there is no way around the conclusion that a geometric progression, if carried on far enough, will eventually overtake an arithmetic progression, no matter what. End of story. Inc. All rights reserved.