Explain the Malthusian perspective on population growth in the global context

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

English clergyman and economist Thomas Robert Malthus was one of the first scholars to systematically study the effects of population. Displeased with societal changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution in England, he argued that "the power of population is infinitely greater than the power of the earth to produce subsistence (food) for man." According to Malthus, the population, if left unchecked, would exceed the available food supply. He argued that the population would increase in a geometric (exponential) progression (2, 4, 8, 16…) while the food supply would increase only by an arithmetic progression (1, 2, 3…). In other words, a doubling effect occurs. Thus, population growth inevitably surpasses the food supply, and the lack of food ultimately ends population growth and perhaps eliminates the existing population. However, Malthus suggested that this disaster might be averted by either positive or preventive checks on population. Positive checks are mortality risks, such as famine, disease, and war; preventive checks are limited to fertility.

For Malthus, the only acceptable preventive check was moral restraint; people should practice sexual abstinence before marriage and postpone marriage as long as possible in order to have only a few children. Malthus has had a lasting impact on the field of population studies. Most demographers refer to his dire predictions when they examine the relationship between fertility and subsistence needs.

Overpopulation is still a daunting problem that capitalism and technological advances thus far have not solved, especially in middle- and low-income nations with rapidly growing populations and very limited resources.