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An Essay on the Principle of Population: Text, Sources and Background, Criticism (Norton Critical Edition)

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"The germs of existence contained in this spot of earth, with ample food, and ample room to expand in, would fill millions of worlds in the course of a few thousand years." --Thomas R. Malthus, Principle of Population

When I filled out and mailed my census questionnaire in 2000, I reflected upon Malthus's sobering classic, An Essay on the Principle of Population. When I was in elementary school in the 1960's, I remember reading optimistic reports in my Weekly Reader that new high-yielding crops would make it possible to meet the food requirements of the world. If those utopians were familiar with Malthus's essay, their visions for the future welfare of humanity might have been less optimistic. However, if there was over-optimism then, it has largely vanished now.

Who has not viewed educational television programs discussing the severe stresses on the global environment due to our excessive consumption of both renewable and nonrenewable resources? Environmentalists highlight the dire energy and environmental problems facing us in the future. The poorer countries would also like to enjoy the benefits of industrialization that will, of course, further tax our resources and stress our environment. Even if we assume the environmentalists exaggerate our circumstances, even the scientifically illiterate comprehend that the capacity of the earth to support life is finite. In the face of such problems, Malthus's three "incontrovertible truths" are as relevant today as the day he penned them:

"That population cannot increase without the means of subsistence, is a proposition so evident, that it needs no illustration.

"That population does invariably increase, where there are the means of subsistence, the history of every people that have ever existed will abundantly prove.

"And, that the superior power of population cannot be checked, without producing misery or vice, the ample portion of these too bitter ingredients in the cup of human life, and the continuance of the physical causes that seem to have produced them, bear too convincing a testimony."

Both liberals and conservatives have hated Malthus's essay. It dumps cold water on humanitarian hopes and can be used in support of abortion rights and government restrictions on family size. To our peril, we would like to live, aided by technology, in denial of Malthus's postulate, "Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio. Subsistence increases only in an arithmetical ratio." To our endangerment, we would prefer to luxuriate in ignorance of his observation that his postulate "implies a strong and constantly operating check on population fromn the difficulty of subsistence." Says Malthus, "This difficulty must fall some where; and must necessarily be severely felt by a large portion of mankind." Where will this "difficulty of subsistence" put a check on our currently growing world population?

When I was born in 1957, the world population was just under 2.9 billion. It is now over 6 billion. The U.S. Bureau of the Census estimates that the world population will reach 9.3 billion in 2050. With the technological enhancement of our ability to augment our means of subsistence, have we deceived ourselves into believing that we can indefinitely defy the principles of population that Malthus contended were "incontrovertible truths"? Are we robbing from our future by building up a high-interest debt to nature that will lead us to bankruptcy?

We are in need of the fortitude and love of truth that enabled Malthus to say of himself the following:

"[H]e has not acquired that command over his understanding which would enable him to believe what he wishes, without evidence, or to refuse his assent to what might be unpleasing, when accompanied with evidence."

Indeed, the evidence is clear to anyone not addicted to postmodern and new age paradigms of unreason. If we do not put a check on our population, then inevitably, as Malthus puts it, "necessity" will check it via "misery and vice." Thus, Malthus's essay is not just and old classic; it is an old classic containing a valid warning for people of our world today.

In his excellent review on Amazon Joseph D. Widiger lists three incontrovertible principles of Malthus:

"That population cannot increase without the means of subsistence, is a proposition so evident, that it needs no illustration."( But of course today we have population declining in many areas of the world where food is superabundant. In otherwise Malthus did not foresee the kind of demographic transition Mankind is going through, precisely in those societies which have freed themselves completely from living at subsistence level.
)
The second principle is as follows:
"That population does invariably increase, where there are the means of subsistence, the history of every people that have ever existed will abundantly prove.( Again this is no longer the case. We are according to demographers such as Ben Wattenberg and Kenneth Longman living in a ' birth dearth' era at least in the most advanced societies of Europe.)

The third principle is:
"And, that the superior power of population cannot be checked, without producing misery or vice, the ample portion of these too bitter ingredients in the cup of human life, and the continuance of the physical causes that seem to have produced them, bear too convincing a testimony."
In opposite ,the global transformations involving movements of masses of people from the countryside to the city,the increase in the level of education of women, the invention of safe means of contraception have all taken the ' necessity' out of Malthus 'law'.
We live in a different situation than the one he envisaged. And even if global malnutrition does persist, it does not persist because of problems of scarcity but rather of distribution.
All of this of course, does not diminish Malthus genius, or the rightful place he has in the history of social science. For he was the first to truly give an understanding the tremendous importance that population size has on the character and quality of societies.

The Malthusian theory on population was written in 1798.
Malthus believed that the population increased faster than the supply of food available to feed people. He argued that increments in food production due to innovation would stimulate
higher increases in the population growth. Ultimately,
the population would stabilize by famine, death and disease.
Some of these basic principles are being experienced today.
Millions have died from the AIDS disease. In addition, third
world countries are plaqued by famine despite the technological
innovations in food production and distribution. The writings
of Malthus encouraged the first studies in demography.
His readings on population are very critical to an understanding
of our modern day problems with food production, distribution
and innovative techniques to manage a series of continuing
crises in the third world countries.

This book by Malthus is essential for the evolution of the economy thought. Its principles were taken by others economist and sociologist to make their own theories, David Ricardo for example, one of the most important authors of the clasic school. Malthus recomendations had influenced remarkable politicians, who change importants laws in England based on Malthus ideas. A must for everyone interested in the early economy books.

After the first two chapters of An Essay on The Principle of Population, Malthus rambles on and then ties it up at the end. You only need the first two chapters to understand Malthus' argument.

I can't figure out how to go back and see what the rating on this book was from the seller. It smells like an attic and is bent at the top and bottom right hand side (the whole book, not just the cover or a few pages) - there are no marks in the book and it's readable so I'll just air it out. So depending on the rating it may be in exactly the condition stated - it's not bad - it's just not what I'm used to from Amazon resellers. Maybe this is the new normal - I'll still buy them over the new books any day of the week!