One of the favorite stories among economists (especially libertarian economists) is the Simon-Ehrlich wager. Ehrlich was an alarmist who constantly predicted the end of the world as we knew it, while Simon was a cool-headed economist that forced Ehrlich to put his money where his mouth was. Simon argued that if Ehrlich really believed that the world was doomed then the price of commodities should only go up. He let Ehrlich choose five commodities and if the price didn't go up, then Ehrlich lost.
Now we have this story worrying about running out of obscure metals. Perhaps there are no substitutes for these metals, but I would bet my own money, that our progress isn't in as much danger as these alarmists claim.
No comments:
Post a Comment