Eminent economists like Adam Smith, David Hume, and Robert Wallace have unanimously maintained that the human population has, due to its superior power, the ability to overcome the means of subsistence available to it. English political economist Thomas Robert Malthus fully agreed with this view. However, pointing out that no economist before him had investigated the device that kept the population on par with the means of subsistence, Malthus identified this device as misery (Desip.igc.org).
The basic tenets (Desip.igc.org) of Malthus’ theory are:
- Food is required for human beings to survive.
- The unrestrained human population will outgrow the capacity of the earth to produce resources.
- The results of these two unidentical powers must be kept on par with one another.
- Misery is the device that keeps human needs and available resources on par with each other.
- Nature’s diktat that the difference between demand and supply be settled represents the biggest obstacle in the path of any remarkable betterment of society and therefore renders “the perfectibility of man and society” impossible in theory or practice.
- “The Principle of Population,” namely, the unavoidable presence of misery in response to the strength of population to overcome resources, supplies the driving force behind the progress of human civilization by producing motivations for advancement.
Among the proponents of the Malthusian theory, Paul Ehrlich states that Malthus’ predictions are reflected in today’s world. The pace at which resources are being extracted is rising, there is a limited quantity of nonrenewable resources, and a certain point will be reached where the resources would be depleted and the world would have to starve. Ehrlich’s view is echoed by the economists who make up ‘The Club of Rome.’ The economists go on to strongly recommend that preventive measures should be implemented without delay to prevent the world from being faced with no food and resources
(Damencha). The third proponent, Jared Diamond claims that global society is embarked on a non-sustainable journey. While global problems will surely be overcome, it is questionable whether this will be achieved by satisfactory methods of our own choosing, or by unsatisfactory methods not of our choosing like wars, genocide and disease epidemics. The last proponent is Charles Darwin. Darwin’s study of Malthus’ theory and his deduction from it paved the way for his famous theory of biological evolution due to natural selection (Bailey).
Among the opponents to the Malthusian theory, Ester Boserup declares that population size dictated the food production methods. An increase in population is countered by enhanced farming technologies and better seeds to suit the requirement of the rising number of people. For example, early humans obtained food by hunting and gathering. Today, modern farms produce increasingly larger quantities of food. The second opponent, Julian Simon, believes that human beings are themselves a resource. A bigger population translates into an increased number of minds that are able to come up with new inventions to adapt to the needs of the growing population. A third group of opponents contend that Malthus’ prediction of scarce resources does not reflect the situation in the world today. For example, there were predictions that natural resources like tin, nickel, tungsten and copper would soon be depleted. However, due to human innovation, the usage of tin has been replaced by aluminum, large and unexpected deposits of nickel have been located due to highly advanced mining methods, ceramics have replaced tungsten, and fiber-optic wire has replaced copper wiring. The last group of opponents attacks Malthus’ predictions of natural disasters like famines, saying that they have not come true. While there have been large numbers of Africans who have perished due to famine in recent years, their deaths were not due to lack of food but because food was being utilized as a weapon (Damencha).
References
Bailey, R. (2009). “Under the Spell of Malthus”. Reason Magazine. Web.
Damencha, Niall C. “Advocates and Opponents of Malthusian Theory”. 2007. Socyberty. Web.
“Rationale & Core Principles”. The International Society of Malthus. (N/d). 2009. Web.