...ESSAY: THOMAS MALTHUS Born: 13-Feb-1766 Birthplace: Rookery, near Dorking, Surrey, England Died: 29-Dec-1834 Location of death: St. Catherine, near Bath, England Cause of death: unspecified Remains: Buried, Bath Abbey, Bath, England Gender: Male Race or Ethnicity: White Occupation: Economist Nationality: England What many know, at least those with an elementary knowledge of economics or politics, is that Malthus is the surname of a man, who, a couple of hundred years back, said that man, sooner or later, universally, will run up against himself; that the population of mankind will eventually outstrip man's ability to supply himself with the necessities of life. The Malthusian doctrine, as stated in "Essay on the Principle of Population," was expressed as follows: "population increases in a geometric ratio, while the means of subsistence increases in an arithmetic ratio." Well, that seems plain enough, and perfectly understandable, if there is too many people and not enough food, then, certainly, there is going to be problems. Malthus developed his theory, at least to this extent: that left alone, no matter all the problems short of worldwide catastrophe, humankind will survive, as, nature has a natural way to cut population levels: "crime, disease, war, and vice," being, the necessary checks on population." This proposition, as was made by Malthus in 1798, was to cause quite a public stir, then, and yet today. The English economist Thomas Robert Malthus, b. Feb....
Words: 4621 - Pages: 19
...In the United States, the universal rights of the individual are commonly recognized. Unfortunately, in the fervor to uphold the rights of individuals, many people overlook the universal picture. By this I mean that the good of the whole will be sacrificed for the individual. Such is the state of the general population. I write this paper on the premise that the world is overpopulated. In light of this viewpoint, I advocate population control. When I choose the topic for this paper, I settled on subject of overpopulation and population control believing it to be a new and unexplored topic. I was wrong by a long shot. Population was under intense scrutiny during the 1960'a and 70's (Wilmoth 334). Long before that Thomas Robert Malthus brought the overpopulation problem into the lime light in 1798 (Hardin 9). Why then had I never heard of this topic before? I found that the issue is extremely complex, broad and not well defined. It is impossible to hint at the scope of the problem in a five minute newsbyte or two column article. For this reason it is obvious that the issue does not lend itself well to be included in the main stream media. This subject is so expansive that I'll count it a job done well if I can just scratch the surface of it in this paper. Overpopulation and population control has implications in economics, the environment, sociology, philosophy, family, politics, religion, sexuality, and individual rights. Any one of these aspects of overpopulation is subject...
Words: 338 - Pages: 2
...Nehal Patel U69017940 ENC 3310 Summary Project 02/04/2010 Malthus in Africa: Rwanda’s Genocide Summary Malthus in Africa: Rwanda’s Genocide is an educative chapter written by Jared Diamond educating the reader that in the case of Rwanda’s collapse, the critical circumstances like lack of farming land, hunger, poverty, war, lack of natural resources etc. were caused by population pressure. Overpopulation being the major causes, it brings plenty of problems with it. Diamond starts off the chapter by talking about his family’s visit to East Africa where they saw overpopulated streets of poor people especially poor children at the side of the road begging for a pencil. Diamond talks about how “population problems such as those of East Africa are often referred to as Malthusian theory” which is population grows exponentially compare to food production increases arithmetically. (Diamond 312) Then, Diamond discusses about Rwanda’s people that was dominated by Hutus, principally farmers, and Tutsis who were minority. Both did not like each other and therefore; Hutus army with weapons started the killing of Tutsis and “within six weeks, an estimated 800,000 Tutsis, representing about three quarters of Tutsi population in Rwanda”. (Diamond 317) Later, Diamond presents many surveys, samples, statistics and examples such as, overpopulation in Kanama causing population consuming less than average daily required calories, to inform readers about different regions becoming...
Words: 459 - Pages: 2
...The full title of the first edition of Malthus' essay was "An Essay on the Principle of Population, as it affects the Future Improvement of Society with remarks on the Speculations of Mr. Godwin, M. Condorcet, and Other Writers." The speculations and other writers are explained below. William Godwin had published his utopian work Enquiry concerning Political Justice in 1793, with later editions in 1796 and 1798. Also, Of Avarice and Profusion (1797). Malthus' remarks on Godwin's work spans chapters 10 through 15 (inclusive) out of nineteen. Godwin responded with Of Population (1820). The Marquis de Condorcet had published his utopian vision of social progress and the perfectibility of man Esquisse d'un Tableau Historique des Progres de l'Espirit Humain (The Future Progress of the Human Mind) in 1794. Malthus' remarks on Condorcet's work spans chapters 8 and 9. Malthus' essay was in response to these utopian visions, as he argued: "This natural inequality of the two powers, of population, and of production of the earth, and that great law of our nature which must constantly keep their effects equal, form the great difficulty that appears to me insurmountable in the way to the perfectibility of society." The "Other writers" included Robert Wallace, Adam Smith, Richard Price, and David Hume. Malthus himself claimed: "The only authors from whose writings I had deduced the principle, which formed the main argument of the Essay, were Hume, Wallace, Adam Smith, and Dr. Price ...
Words: 1548 - Pages: 7
..."In October 1838, that is, fifteen months after I had begun my systematic inquiry, I happened to read for amusement Malthus on Population, and being well prepared to appreciate the struggle for existence which everywhere goes on from long- continued observation of the habits of animals and plants, it at once struck me that under these circumstances favourable variations would tend to be preserved, and unfavourable ones to be destroyed. The results of this would be the formation of a new species. Here, then I had at last got a theory by which to work". Charles Darwin, from his autobiography. (1876) This often quoted passage reflects the significance Darwin affords Malthus in formulating his theory of Natural Selection. What "struck" Darwin in Essay on the Principle of Population (1798) was Malthus's observation that in nature plants and animals produce far more offspring than can survive, and that Man too is capable of overproducing if left unchecked. Malthus concluded that unless family size was regulated, man's misery of famine would become globally epidemic and eventually consume Man. Malthus' view that poverty and famine were natural outcomes of population growth and food supply was not popular among social reformers who believed that with proper social structures, all ills of man could be eradicated. Although Malthus thought famine and poverty natural outcomes, the ultimate reason for those outcomes was divine institution. He believed that such natural outcomes were God's...
Words: 1561 - Pages: 7
...Malthus KEY POINTS * Thomas Malthus warned that population growth would exceed resource growth, leading to catastrophic checks on overpopulation. This would occur because population grew exponentially while food supply grew arithmetically. * Without population control, the population would be reduced by catastrophes such as famine or war according to Malthusian theory. * As a solution, Malthus urged moral restraint: people must practice abstinence, sterilization, and have criminal punishments for those who have more/">more children than they can support. * Malthusian catastrophes refer to naturally ocurring checks on population growth such as famine, disease, or war. * These Malthusian catastrophes have not taken place on a global scale due to progress in agricultural technology. However, many argue that future pressures on food production, combined with threats such as global warming, make overpopulation a still more serious threat in the future. Early in the 19th century, the English scholar Reverend Thomas Malthus published "An Essay on the Principle of Population. " In it, he argued that overpopulation was the cause of many of the social ills observed in the industrial societies of Europe: poverty, malnutrition, and disease could all be attributed to overpopulation. According to Malthus, this was a mathematical inevitability. Malthus observed that, while resources tended to grow arithmetically, populations exhibit exponential growth. Thus, if left...
Words: 806 - Pages: 4
...Cola currently costs me two dollars whereas it was previously only about one dollar several years ago. It's not just a matter of inflation, but a likely shift in inputs and production. Hourly wages aren't so great and people are working overtime to get by and have enough for future savings and leisure. The economy isn't so simple. What caused wages to be so low? Why do people become unemployed? Why do the prices of certain products or goods suddenly rise? Why aren't we just stuck in some steady state where everyone can consume as much as they would like and save without worrying about the long run uncertainties? All of these can't be analyzed in just one model. Taking into consideration the views on growth by Solow, Smith, Ricardo, and Malthus there are just so many factors including possible externalities that contribute to the growth of an economy that we can't just stick with a model and leave every other one aside. We can possibly even take correlating variables and run regressions all day and see whether they positively or negatively contribute to an economy's growth, but even then there will still be outliers in our regression model. At the end of the day, regardless of the rate of an economy's growth we all strive towards efficiency and progress. Solow's model, often called the Neo-classical Growth Model, outlined how a steady economic growth rate would be accomplished with labor, capital, and technology. The model took on a production function with varying amounts of...
Words: 1155 - Pages: 5
...Adam Smith (5 June 1723 OS (16 June 1723 NS) – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish moral philosopher and a pioneer of political economy. One of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment,[1] Smith is best known for two classic works: The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). The latter, usually abbreviated as The Wealth of Nations, is considered his magnum opus and the first modern work of economics. Smith is cited as the "father of modern economics" and is still among the most influential thinkers in the field of economics today.[2] Friedrich Engels (German: [ˈfʁiːdʁɪç ˈɛŋəls]; 28 November 1820 – 5 August 1895) was a German social scientist, author,political theorist, philosopher, and father of Marxist theory, alongside Karl Marx. In 1845 he published The Condition of the Working Class in England, based on personal observations and research. In 1848 he co-authored The Communist Manifesto with Karl Marx, and later he supported Marx financially to do research and write Das Kapital. After Marx's death, Engels edited the second and third volumes. Additionally, Engels organized Marx's notes on the "Theories of Surplus Value" and this was later published as the "fourth volume" of Capital.[1] He has also made important contributions to family economics. Milton Friedman (July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American economist, statistician, and writer who taught at the University of Chicago for more than three...
Words: 958 - Pages: 4
...grow 75million per year. So what is the answer and how much of a problem is population growth and resource usage? That is what I aim to clear up in this essay. The ideas put forward by Robert Malthus in the late 18th century suggested that as time goes on, sooner or later population will exceed Earth’s carrying capacity and thus the Earth’s resources will not be able to provide a sufficient standard of life to all its inhabitants. This is because human population grows geometrically while resource numbers grow arithmetically. Therefore Malthus suggests that people should delay marriages, reduce fertility rates and also that some should not marry at all and therefore abstain from sexual intercourse. However Malthus’ theory has been vulnerable to a lot of scrutinizing because many feel his ideas have now been proved wrong. For example since his lifetime the population has doubled and life expectancy is now at 68 and the World seems to be coping with the demands. In his support, the Easter Islands, located in the Pacific Ocean had a population that peaked at 10000. Since then there has been large scale deforestation and there is now a severe lack of vegetation which is what Malthusian ideas suggested would happen with a greater population. When population exceeds available resources, Malthus put forward the idea that there would be a...
Words: 726 - Pages: 3
...Malthus: productivity grows in a linear way. Population grows exponentially. B: population growth outpaces productivity growth. That’s when famine comes in place, people fight over food etc. So after a while, population goes down again, until pop. growth equals productivity growth (C). But when Malthus (a philosopher) came up with this, it was just before the industrial revolution. Population increased quicker than productivity. The land reforms passed in the UK, who in the beginning fostered prod. growth but esp. pop. growth would eventually lead to the industrial revolution. That prod. growth was that important, that the Malthus effect never really occurred in the UK. Carlyle: a philosopher who coined the term ‘the Dismal Science’ (dismal as opposed to gay). If the Malthus effect were true, then increasing productivity, efficiency, would be a moral duty. One view: efficiency is all we should worry about. Other people will say that growth is not a moral duty, but redistribution, solidarity is. Why? -Darwinian evolutionary argument: it fosters the growth of human population quicker. This is what the Left in America uses as an argument. -there’s no level playing field/opportunities -religious argument? -insurance mechanism (bad luck): but this only works if you work in group. We want to insure ourselves against bad luck. -hedonistic welfare argument: people feel better when they don’t see other people suffer. People care about each other. Efficiency or solidarity...
Words: 697 - Pages: 3
...Teori-teori yang dapat digunakan untuk menganalisis pengangguran di Indonesia: • Teori kependudukan dari Malthus Pokok teori Malthus ini adalah pemikiran bahwa pertumbuhan penduduk cenderung melampui pertumbuhan persediaan makanan. Dalam dia punya esai yang orisinal, Malthus menyuguhkan idenya dalam bentuk yang cukup kaku. Dia bilang, penduduk cenderung tumbuh secara “deret ukur” (misalnya, dalam lambang 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 dan seterusnya) sedangkan persediaan makanan cenderung bertumbuh secara “deret hitung” (misalnya, dalam deret 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 dan seterusnya). Dalam karya-karyanya yanag terbit belakangan, Malthus menekankan lagi tesisnya, tetapi tidak sekaku semula, dengan hanya berkata bahwa penduduk cenderung bertumbuh secara tak terbatas hingga mencapai batas persediaan makanan. Dari kedua bentuk uraian tesis itu, Malthus berkesimpulan bahwa kuantitas manusia akan kejeblos ke dalam kemiskinan kelaparan. Dalam jangka panjang, tak ada kemajuan teknologi yang dapat mengalihkan keadaan itu, karena kenaikan suplai makanan terbatas, sedangkan “pertumbuhan penduduk tak terbatas, dan bumi tak mampu memprodusir makanan buat menjaga eksistensi manusia.” Apabila ditelaah lebih dalam teori Malthus ini yang menyatakan penduduk cenderung bertumbuh secara tak terbatas hingga mencapai batas persediaan makanan, dan hal ini menimbulkan manusia saling bersaing untuk melanjutkan kelangsungan hidupnya dengan cara mencari sumber makanan, dengan persaingan ini maka aka nada sebagian manusia...
Words: 1204 - Pages: 5
...Unemployment: An evil necessity? 1. Introduction By definition economics is “a social science concerned chiefly with description and analysis of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.” And as with other types of sciences, economics contains many beliefs and theories that may be difficult to understand, yet are essential in the “day to day” decision making for many people. But also like other sciences, economics has evolved into what it is today. And it will continue to evolve as the practitioners of the science debate, test and discover better and more efficient way to “analyze the data.” Perhaps more than any other time in our nation’s history, people have personally seen the effects of economics. One of the most visible areas seen in the market place today is the economics of unemployment. Unemployment is currently 8.2% as measured by the United States Bureau of Statistics. I believe that most people are familiar with the term “Unemployment Rate”, but I imagine that only a handful understand the significance of what this “number” is telling us. Economics is similar to mathematics, physics and chemistry in the sense that all disciplines require thought, equations, observations and experiments to be performed in order to get an “observable” end result. And from that result we make conclusion about the very thing we are testing. So it is with unemployment; a “mathematical equation” that has the possibility of helping us understand the underlying...
Words: 2855 - Pages: 12
...millennium A.D., the world’s population stood at 300 million people. The Industrial Revolution in the 18th century raised living standards and spurred growth; in the year 1800 the world’s population reached one billion. The 20th century was marked by health advances that improved life expectancy and increased the number of children that would reach adulthood and bear their own children; in 1927 the two billionth baby was born, in 1960 the third, in 1974 the fourth, in 1987 the fifth, and in 1999 the sixth. We now stand in the year 2012 with a world population of 7 billion. The exponential rate at which population is increasing is a global concern. Economist and demographer Thomas Malthus voices that population will naturally exceed its resources and then famine, war, and disease will put a check on its growth (Malthus, 1798). In the face of these concerns, various states are formulating and implementing policies to control their population growth in order to achieve socioeconomic sustainability and ensure a better quality of life for future generations. “Population is determined by the interplay of two factors. One is the birth rate, or the number or people being born, and the other is death rate, or the number who die. The difference between the two is called the rate of natural increase” (Stefoff, 1993). The rate of natural increase accelerated over the centuries due to industrialization that improved health care and food supplies in developing nations, therefore the birth...
Words: 1124 - Pages: 5
...increased longevity. It has been determined numerous times throughout the last several hundred years that overpopulation of the human race is looming and is an unavoidable fate of the human race which will ultimately lead to its self-destruction. One such theory, perhaps the most famous, belongs to Thomas Malthus whom lived during the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution laid the foundation for manufacturing on a massive scale which was accompanied by advancements in technology that also brought about an era of farming that was vastly more efficient. In 1798, Thomas Malthus predicted in An Essay on the Principle of Population, (which was revised to accommodate for criticisms,) that the human race could not account for its growth in terms of resources and sustenance as he believed the population increased exponentially compared to food supply (Malthus). Even with the advancements that made farming and growing food significantly more efficient, Malthus believed the extreme population growth due to birth rates as well as marriage rates, would outlast the world’s food supply. This example is one of many that show the human race succumbing to overpopulation. Malthus was wrong, however, and could not account for the production of food as it paralleled...
Words: 2039 - Pages: 9
...Many things threaten our world: war, climate change, and poverty are among them. While many people are concerned with our economy, our oil dependency, and dwindling food and water supplies, others acknowledge the simple reason as to why we are faced with these issues – the Earth is overpopulated. Exponential growth has been seen in our world population over the past two centuries, with a grand total of 7 billion (6.97 as of my last essay) people roaming the Earth today (Tomkin, 2011). Mankind has ventured a long way to reach the position we are in currently, and in this essay I will explain how we got here and where we might be headed, citing examples of previous efforts to combat overpopulation. I then will suggest my own solution to the problem, and then give detailed analysis as to why my method should be implemented. Over the course of mankind’s time on this planet, the population has changed rather drastically. Since long before the birth of Christ, thousands of years ago, the Earth had held a stable number of approximately one million people (Zhang, et al, 2011). The stability was vastly due to the scavenger lifestyle of early humans, a world where only the strong survived. Throughout the Middle Ages population increased to an estimated 250-500 million people, yet took hard hits due to disease and plague (Rosling, 2010). The flux in population was due to the invention of agriculture, which at this time was the sole reason that Earth’s carrying capacity had increased...
Words: 2555 - Pages: 11
