The perennial idea of something for nothing appeals to something deep in the human psyche. Like the quest for a perpetual motion machine; it never ends, but merely takes on new forms. Matt Ridley examines the science of “free” power from the wind and finds, yet again, there’s no such thing as a free lunch.
At Least He Paid his Losing Bet
Paul Ehrlich, author of the spectacularly incorrect 1968 best-seller The Population Bomb, recently died at 93. Despite his longevity, Ronald Bailey points out in Reason, Ehrlich did not live to see even one of his numerous apocalyptic predictions come true. The world’s population certainly grew, but not merely larger, richer and fatter too. Most famously, Ehrlich once bet economist Julian Simon that the world was approaching economic collapse – but in 1990 had to mail Simon a cheque.
