And this:
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Bickmore's "Who are the alarmists here?"
Barry Bickmore has a great op-ed in the Deseret News, "Who are the alarmists here," in reply to a typical denier scoffer who gave all the typical denier scoffer myths, objections, mistakes, unthuths, misconceptions, etc. You should read it all, but this was especially good:
Read the full piece.
Thanks for the heads-up, the article by Dan Liljenquist is of particular interest because it starts with an astounding level of nonsense. Taking the first paragraph, "Economics was once known as 'the dismal science' primarily because of an 18th century economist, Thomas Malthus" is maybe a common misapprehension, but the phrase "the dismal science" was introduced by Thomas Carlyle in 1849 when arguing that slavery should be reintroduced in the West Indies rather than leave the labour market up to supply and demand.
ReplyDeleteMalthus was a clergyman rather than an economist, and it's completely wrong to say that he "famously predicted that population growth in Europe would lead to the extinction of the human race" – he was arguing for a divinely designed static society where population growth was kept in check by limits on resources set to induce good moral behaviour, effectively the Protestant work ethic in which welfare handouts were futile and utopian progress impossible. The assertion by Liljenquist that Malthus "bet his professional reputation on the imminent collapse of society" is simply incorrect.