ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the validity of the negative answer given by "Doomsday Models" associated with the names of Forrester and Meadows, and to a lesser extent with the group of English scientists who published a manifesto called "A Blueprint for Survival." Arguments about the desirability of economic growth often turn quickly into arguments about the "quality" of modern life. The most glaring defect of the Forrester-Meadows models is the absence of any sort of functioning price system. There are several ways in which the working of the price system will push our society into faster and more systematic increases in the productivity of natural resources. Excessive pollution occurs because of an important flaw in the price system. The flaw can be corrected, either by the simple expedient of regulating the discharge of wastes to the environment by direct control or by the slightly more complicated device of charging special prices—user taxes—to those who dispose of wastes in air or water.
