You guys should go visit Cafe Hayek. There are many posts there that are short, but beautifully articulates a perhaps counter-intuitive point that just makes a lot of sense once you think about it.

I just read a post there, where one of the blog’s authors, Mr Donald Boudreaux, posted on his blog a letter he had sent in response to some other guy’s letter to the New York Times. The blog actually has quite a few of his letters to various newspapers. Oh, and he’s an economist, by the way. Haha.

Here’s what Mr Boudreaux said:

Robert Kennedy, Jr., might be correct that electricity is best provided in Chile by means other than hydroelectric dams (Letters, April 8). His presumption, however, about the source of prosperity casts doubt on the quality of his argument.

Mr. Kennedy opposes dams because he wants to protect “nature’s bounty.” But nature is not bountiful. If it were, human history would be one of prosperity and long, healthy lives rather than one of oppressive poverty and short, miserable lives. Nature is miserly. The bounty that Mr. Kennedy presumes comes from nature is, in fact, the relatively recent product of human creativity and industry unleashed by free markets – and now threatened by the mindless worship of nature.

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux

Whether or not you agree with hydroelectric power or not, is one thing. What is particularly powerful about this letter is that it questions the basic assumption that “nature”, otherwise known as “Mother Earth” is this wonderful being who provides us with such great stuff.

But really, what’s even more amazing is how we have managed to maximizes the ultimately scarce resource that this “Mother Earth” has provided.

I don’t like mindless worship of nature. There’s a name for that: it’s paganism. As irrational as any other religion. Hence, I will soon finish up a post that I wrote halfway on a discussion I had with some A11-ers on animal rights. Haha.