Concern about the impact of population and industrial growth on the environment and limited resources of “Spaceship Earth” is causing some economists to re‐examine their first principles.

Probably the oldest battle cry of the economics profession is “TINSTAAEL'—“There is no such thing as a free lunch.” This means you can't get some thing for nothing; natural resources, capital and labor must be used to produce any thing of value. Economists cite the principle as proof of their hard‐boiled realism. But Prof. Nicholas Georgescu‐Roegen of Vanderbilt University, a Dis tinguished Fellow of the Amer ican Economic Association, says TINSTAAFL is not nearly harsh enough.

He contends that the cost of any biological or economic enterprise is always greater than the product.” In other words, “You never get as much out of a lunch as you put into it.”

The explanation of this more pessimistic principle is that the economic process normally con sists of taking free energy— such as coal or oil—and ulti mately converting it into forms of “bound” energy — such as pollution or wastes that arc no longer readily available to pro duce heat or mechanical power. In brief, economic production is a process of downgrading the resources needed to support life.