Robert Malthus
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by AliceBG (talk | contribs) at 03:26, September 28, 2008. It may differ significantly from current revision.
Robert Thomas Malthus (1766-1834) was a British economist and sociologist who promoted classical economics like Adam Smith.
Malthus referred to the study of economics as "the dismal science," believing that the failure and collapse of the economy was inevitable. Malthus insisted that while population increased by a geometric ratio, the means of subsistence only increased by an arithmetic ratio. Thus, population would always be constrained by the food supply, with famine being a primary check to population growth. Malthus's model, however, was not supported by empirical data, primarily because he failed to account for technological growth in the production of food, as well as the income effect acting to slow down population growth.
- Thomas Malthus ... predicted in 1789 that the planet's rapid increase in population would soon outstrip the planet's ability to produce food resulting in massive worldwide starvation. Of course, Malthus' predicted famine never materialized. He could not have predicted the industrial revolution nor the enormous impact of subsequent technological innovations would have on our ability to produce food. [1]