Right · Economist · From history

Julian Simon

American economist, 1932 to 1998

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Argued in The Ultimate Resource that human ingenuity, not scarcity, drives progress, and won a famous bet against the ecologist Paul Ehrlich on commodity prices.

Julian Simon sits in the right-libertarian part of the Caucus economy and liberty compass: strongly free market and leaning libertarian. The clearest positions are strongly free market on economy, strongly growth-first on environment and strongly tech-optimist on technology. The profile is close to the middle on war and peace and interventionism.

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Where Julian Simon sits on ten dimensions

Each scale runs from one pole to the other, and the dot shows the overall tendency of this person's record and public life. These are simplified estimates and open to debate.

💰EconomyStrongly free market
State-ledFree market
⚖️Liberty and authorityLeaning libertarian
LibertarianAuthoritarian
🎭CultureSlightly traditional
ProgressiveTraditional
🌍NationSlightly globalist
GlobalistNationalist
🌱EnvironmentStrongly growth-first
Growth-firstNature-first
🤖TechnologyStrongly tech-optimist
Tech-cautiousTech-optimist
🕊️War and peaceCentered on war and peace
Peace-firstStrength-first
🏛️InstitutionsLeaning anti-establishment
Anti-establishmentInstitutional
🙏ReligionSlightly secular
SecularReligious
🛡️InterventionismCentered on interventionism
Non-interventionistInterventionist

People most like Julian Simon

Matt Ridley British science writer and businessman99%Marc Andreessen Venture capitalist and Netscape co-founder97%Michael Shellenberger American writer and activist96%Ludwig von Mises Austrian economist, 1881 to 197396%Friedrich Hayek Austrian-British economist and philosopher, 1899 to 199295%Milton Friedman American economist, 1912 to 200695%Mario Vargas Llosa Peruvian novelist, 1936 to 202593%Peter Diamandis American entrepreneur and futurist91%

People furthest from Julian Simon

Mojtaba Khamenei Supreme Leader of Iran, 2026 to present10%Petra Kelly German Green co-founder, 1947 to 199210%Vandana Shiva Indian environmental activist12%Dorothy Day American journalist and Catholic Worker founder, 1897 to 198012%

Political views closest to Julian Simon

Effective accelerationismArgues that rapid technological progress, especially in AI and energy, is the best path…95%Techno-libertarianismBelieves that digital technology, encryption and open markets can shrink the state and…94%MinarchismLimits the state to a minimal "night-watchman" role of courts, police and defense.93%Austrian schoolAn economic tradition that stresses individual choice, sound money and skepticism about…91%

Read more about Julian Simon

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Biographies of Julian SimonBooks on effective accelerationism

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Percentages show how close two profiles are across all ten dimensions. Including a person here is for study and comparison, not approval.