THOMAS ROBERT MALTHUS IN BRIEF

The human population

Food is essential, it sustains life, provides energy and promotes growth.

Thomas Robert Malthus: his “essay on the principle of population” argued that the planet’s population would always persista t a lvel adequate to support life

THE SUBSISTANCE LEVEL

Malthus argued that food has a levelling affect and he says that more food doesn’t means more births and longer lives.

Example of subsistance level: Imagine a school of fish and algae, their essential food source and let’s assume the school is in equilibrium; extra algae have been shipped into the area, increased food means more fish will survive to maturity and according to Malthus this population increase is “exponential”. The algae won’t increase like fish; availability of land constrains the production of food, so algae production grow linearly.

Land availability is outside human just like famine and disease.

Malthus believed that social welfare and food redistribution to the poor would unravel in the long run. Malthus’ theory in population has been acknowledged as the most influential work of its era.