The Desirability of Natural Resource Depletion

This paper was written for a conference on natural resources, and we were asked to talk about the Club of Rome model, which we had been examining. Having formed a poor opinion of that model, we decided to devote only an initial section to it, and that is written in a polemical style. Those who have had much to do with the world-dynamics debate will understand why we thought it necessary to express ourselves in terms more vigorous than we would usually think proper. Economists are advised that the real content of the paper is in sections 2 and 3, and accordingly recommended to start reading at section 2.