R.T.Malthus Population Theory
BLANTYRE INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT
ASSIGNMENT 1
LECTURER: MR NKHOMA
BY:
NTULWA MARIA MASANJIKA
BEC/2012/2/135
Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834) is an English minister and early economic thinker who is famous for his book called ‘An Essay on the Principle of Population’ as it offers he future improvement of society. Malthus argued that an ever increasing population would continuously strain society’s ability to provide for itself as a result mankind was doomed to forever in poverty. Malthus logic was simple .He began by noting, that “food is necessary to the existence of man” and that the passion between the sexes is necessary and will remain nearly in its present state. He basically foretold the problems of food shortage that the world is facing today, due to an uncontrolled increase in population. In his essay, Malthus stated that, the populations of the world would increase in geometric proportions while the food resources available for them would increase only in arithmetic proportion. With Malawi as a case study, there is no regulation on child control that is to say, people give birth freely, they can have any number of children they want therefore increasing the countries’ population. It is also sad to note that most of the people that have large families are those living in poverty, mostly because they are uneducated. Unlike those who are, because they know the consequences of having too many children in terms of costs. Malthus stated that if the human population was allowed to increase in an uncontrolled way, then the number of people would increase at a faster rate than the food supply. A point would come when human population would reach the limit up to which food resources could support it. Any further increase would lead to population crash caused by natural phenomena like famine and disease. According to Malthus the only check on population growth was “misery and vice”.
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT
ASSIGNMENT 1
LECTURER: MR NKHOMA
BY:
NTULWA MARIA MASANJIKA
BEC/2012/2/135
Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834) is an English minister and early economic thinker who is famous for his book called ‘An Essay on the Principle of Population’ as it offers he future improvement of society. Malthus argued that an ever increasing population would continuously strain society’s ability to provide for itself as a result mankind was doomed to forever in poverty. Malthus logic was simple .He began by noting, that “food is necessary to the existence of man” and that the passion between the sexes is necessary and will remain nearly in its present state. He basically foretold the problems of food shortage that the world is facing today, due to an uncontrolled increase in population. In his essay, Malthus stated that, the populations of the world would increase in geometric proportions while the food resources available for them would increase only in arithmetic proportion. With Malawi as a case study, there is no regulation on child control that is to say, people give birth freely, they can have any number of children they want therefore increasing the countries’ population. It is also sad to note that most of the people that have large families are those living in poverty, mostly because they are uneducated. Unlike those who are, because they know the consequences of having too many children in terms of costs. Malthus stated that if the human population was allowed to increase in an uncontrolled way, then the number of people would increase at a faster rate than the food supply. A point would come when human population would reach the limit up to which food resources could support it. Any further increase would lead to population crash caused by natural phenomena like famine and disease. According to Malthus the only check on population growth was “misery and vice”.