When the Covid-19 virus first appeared and our knowledge of its lethality was limited, “sheltering in place” and closing our schools appeared to be rational safeguards. But for Roger Kimball, writing in American Greatness, the evidence is now clear. Far from being an existential emergency, the virus is just a vicissitude of life.
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.
