Malthus, Thomas

Thomas Malthus (1766-1834), an English political economist famous for his Essay on the Principle of Population, published in 1798, in which he argues that unchecked population growth always exceeds the growth of means of subsistence. Actual (checked) population growth is kept in line with food supply growth by "positive checks" (starvation, disease and the like, elevating the death rate) and "preventive checks" (i.e., postponement of marriage, etc., that keep down the birthrate), both of which are characterized by "misery and vice". Malthus was motivated by what he saw as the decline of living conditions in nineteenth century England. He blamed this decline on three elements: the overproduction of young; the inability of resources to keep up with the rising human population; and the irresponsibility of the lower classes. Malthus’ ideas were resurrected in the limits to growth debates of the 1970s in which so-called neo-Malthusians argued that resource depletion and environmental degradation were symptoms of society exceeding its carrying capacity.