Wager between Julian Simon and Paul Ehrlich - Definition and Overview

Julian Simon and Paul Ehrlich entered in a famous wager in 1980, betting on a mutually agreed upon measure of resource scarcity over the decade leading up to 1990.

Simon and Ehrlich agreed to bet on the price of several commodity metals. Ehrlich chose 5 metals: copper, chrome, nickel, tin, and tungsten. Simon bet that their prices would go down.

Julian Simon won handily and, per the terms of the wager, Ehrlich paid Simon the difference in price between the same quantity of metals in 1980 and 1990 (which was $576.07).

External links

• http://www.overpopulation.com/simon_bet.html
• Overpopulation -- The Population Explosion (http://dieoff.org/page27.htm) "Brownlash" and the wager