In 1985 Surgeon General C. Everett Koop said AIDS was the greatest threat to public health this country has ever faced and that research predicts one in five heterosexuals will be dead from AIDS in the next five years (by 1990). A member of the president’s commission on AIDS said that it was the greatest threat to society ever faced by civilization – more serious than the plagues faced by past generations.
In 1968 Paul Erlich wrote a book called “The Population Bomb,” published by the Sierra Club. The book’s ideas were widely talked about. It predicted that hundreds of millions of people would starve to death in the ’70s and ’80s due to overpopulation and called for taxing the rich to pay for population control to prevent the “great die-off” which included 65 Americans who would die…
In the 1990s, many credible climate change advocates said that much of Florida would be underwater by now.
In the 1990s it was predicted the world would run out of oil in 15 years, and civilization would come to a stop.
In 1999, “Y2K” theorists said the world would stop due to computer dates not being able to handle the year ’00.
The “experts” predictions have been found to be so poor that they’d have been beaten by random guesses.
Today has its own voices who cry in the streets and on the news of our doom or demise due to this or that.
Are you a consumer and participant in fear?
I am “rationally optimistic”. (Thanks for the recommendation on that book by the way! I remember all of the false predictions that you mention in your blog today. Reminds me that most economist have predicted 20 out of the last 3 recessions. Bad things do happen, and we must prepare for them. However, if one falls prey to the constant gloom and doom it can greatly and negatively alter their enjoyment of life and ability to plan for a prosperous future.
This poster is in my local lumber yard that I appreciated and wanted to share
2000- Y2K is going to kill us all
2001- Anthrax is going to kill us all
2002- West Nile Virus is going to kill us all
2003- SARS is going to kill us all
2005- BIRD Flu is going to kill us all
2006- ECOLI is going to kill us all
2008- The bad economy is going to kill us all
2009- SWINE Flu is going to kill us all
2010- BP Oil is going to kill us all
2012-The Mayan Calendar is going to kill us all
2013- North Korea is going to kill us all
2014- Ebola Virus is going to Kill u sall
2015- Disney Measles and ISIS are going to kill us all
2016- Zika Virus is going to kill us all
2020- Corona Virus going to kill us all, but really Fear is Killing You…Turn off the TV
I don’t participate and decide to make my own decisions.
Good Morning to you as well Larry!
Jason…wow! Thank you for that! That puts Larry’s talk today into perspective. I remember my accountant (that got his doctorate at the University of Chicago ) telling the class I was in for real estate investing… “We will never run out of oil” , “America is pretty smart, we will come up with many options”! And that’s what we did 🙂
You can’t live your life based on everyone else’s views and opinions. Rain is just rain. Don’t assume you are going to slip and fall because the ground is a little wet. Make your own conditions.
Good Morning Larry! There are already some great responses on here, I can’t wait to come back and read more. This is soooo true/relevant right now. I’ve always been big on thinking I need to “watch the news” and “know what is happening” but it has become so obvious between the election and the virus, that some people have totally lost their common sense and are so negative and politically motivated, that I just can’t watch. I have a level head and we have done well through this turmoil, but I caught myself a couple of times being sucked in and this is something people consciously need to think about and not let your smart self be overwhelmed by your dumb self. We have survived a lot. My motto is that if I haven’t been infected yet, I am probably doing something right, and it isn’t hiding out at home. 🙂
Fantastic perspective with regard to “Fears without Facts”
I love your message today! So much of what we are told today is driven by fantastical, sensationalism that there really isn’t much truth left. Unfortunately too many people thrive on controversy and chaos and so the media appeals to what they like to hear. I really miss the good old days when Paul Harvey and the like were telling us the real news.