The Wall Street Journal (Paywall, Opinion, April 30) – Fifty years ago this month, Stanford University biologist Paul Ehrlich published “The Population Bomb,” a pessimistic view of the future of the planet caused by overpopulation. At the time, Julian Lincoln Simon, a professor of business and economics at the U. of I., said the doom-and-gloomers had a false understanding of scarcity that led them to believe resources are fixed and limited. In 1981 he put his findings together in a book called “The Ultimate Resource.” In contrast to the misanthropic tone of “The Population Bomb,” Simon was optimistic, recognizing that human beings are more than just mouths to be fed. They also come with minds.
