Thomas Malthus

Introduction

Over the last centuries many theorists have tried to explain the reason of population change and what can be expected in the future. There were many famous economists who had such ideas and theories but one of the most controversial was Thomas Malthus. British demographer economist become famous after publishing his book “Essay on the Principle of Population Growth” with controversial theories about increasing population and its relationship with the availability of resources. However, Malthus was one of the first economists who made people to be aware of population growth. In this paper assignment I would like to describe and explain his theories and also talk about some of arguments what are against his opinion.

Theory of Thomas Malthus

The most well-known idea of Malthus was created by the theory based on the relationship between the number of people and the amount of food. He believed that the world's population tends to increase faster than its food supply. According to Malthus theory the number of population increases geometrically (e.g. 1,2,4,8,16,...), while food supply only increases arithmetically

(e.g. 1,2,3,4,5...). He was convinced that human society will never be perfect. Human population was described by him as a lazy people who live they life happy longest as there will be enough food supply to their families. Another theory that he mentioned in his work was the relationship between population,wages and inflation. According to Malthus, growing population due inflation will pressure especially poor people to work more in results of improving their situation and also let them consider reducing the population growth. Inflation will be no longer need when standard of living will rise and the population will reach the equals with the food supply. Malthus believed that there were two types of checks that limited population growth. Positive checks by increased the death rate caused by diseases, starvation or war and preventive...