France’s penchant for translating abstract ideas into practical policies often has disastrous consequences. According to Pascal Bruckner, this tendency has reached new heights during the current lockdown. Writing in City Journal, Bruckner reminds us we’re never done with history’s uncertainty, and hyper-ratiocination only means we risk being deluded by a fantasy of omnipotence.
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.
