Thomas Malthus
1766 – 1834
Bio
Malthus was:
- seventh son to wealthy family
- very highly educated in many subjects
- an English cleric and scholar
- of the opinion population growth was divinely imposed to teach virtuous behaviour
Essay on the Principle of Population
Published in 1798
- population geometric
- food arithmetic
Therefore, population will eventually outgrow food supply, and everyone will starve to death and it will be bad.
Title Text
Malthusian Checks
- preventive checks: stop the population from reproducing too quickly
- positive checks: lead to 'premature' death - disease, starvation, war, resulting in what is called
Malthusian Catastrophe
a forced return to subsistence-level conditions once population growth has outpaced agricultural production
He was right
- scientists today use the terms he devised
- the concepts he discussed are still talked about
- his ideas are sound
He was wrong
- Agricultural revolution changed everything
- growth in food production may always outpace population
- we could always have more people farm
It's a debate, and has been for over 200 years.
We disagree
Although his ideas have been maintained, the imminent threat Malthus saw never made itself real.
His concepts have been manipulated to remain relevant in today's world, but in reality he didn't foresee the changes that Industrialization brought.