The effect of increased prices is twofold - the obvious decrease in consumption (and thus demand, exerting a downward pressure on price) and also an increase in the incentive to innovate - to find alternatives, and to make better use of the valuable resource.

The "cornucopian" belief is that the effect of innovation is greater than the effect of finite resources.

That is, because we innovate, real prices decrease (with prices best measured in amount of human labor to obtain a benefit). Sometimes the price of a specific commodity increases (e.g., hours of labor to receive one liter of oil), but the cost of the benefit decreases (e.g., hours of labor to travel 100 miles).

I'd be very interested to see counterexamples, where the human cost of a benefit increases.

kb