so was Jeremiah...
True. As between Cassandra and Jeremiah, on the one hand, and Malthus and Paul Erlich, on the other hand, do we choose the ones that were right or wrong?
Of course, the fundamental error Malthus and Erlich have made is that they assume a static system with no feedback. Market economies are huge feedback loops. Even without market economies, changes in human behavior in response to changes in their environment is a feedback loop. That's why Malthus has never been right empirically.