You’d think that, after the Industrial Revolution melted the Iron Law of Wages, 21st-century intellectuals wouldn’t issue calls for population control. Think again. Apparently unaware of Paul Ehrlich’s humiliation after population growth failed to precipitate global famine, Jane Goodall decided to torpedo her own reputation in a similarly Malthusian manner. …

Goodall is wrong: Human beings led lives of grueling poverty in the state of nature aptly described by Thomas Hobbes as “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”

[As always, my answer to population hysterics is — you first, pal. — Ed]