Thomas Malthuss overpopulation theory Essay - 1171 Words

A little over two hundred years ago a man by the name of Thomas Malthus wrote a document entitled â€Å"An Essay on the Principle of Population† which essentially stated that there is an imbalance between our ability to produce food and our ability to produce children. He said human beings are far better at making babies than they are at finding food for survival. His entire essay is based on these two assumptions. â€Å" First, That food is necessary to the existence of man. And second, that the passion between the sexes is necessary and will remain nearly in its present state.† When taking into account what is said in this essay, it is obvious that his original analysis of population has been proven right. Today, in the twenty-first century,†¦show more content†¦This is because the human population has increased more rapidly than the food production. When Malthus wrote this document 1798, he already predicted that in the future, the population would exceed th e amount of food. This is because â€Å"population grows according to the geometric progression - 1, 2, 4, 8, 16†¦ and the means of subsistence grow according to the arithmetic progression -1, 2, 3, 4†¦Ã¢â‚¬  One of the arguments in malthus’s works was his idea that depression did not fall evenly on each of the classes in society. He believed that the poor brought many of these problems to society by procreating with out being able to support a family, and because of that, becoming dependant on others to support them, therefore diminishing the food supply more rapidly. He also assumed that poverty and misery in the lower classes were inevitable and that those people were the majority in every society. He argued that all attempts to lessen poverty and suffering, no matter how well intended and no matter how well thought out, would only worsen things. Malthus thought that the human condition could not be improved for two reasons. First, he believed that people were driven by an avid desire for sexual pleasure. This led to population increases which, if left unchecked, would grow geometrically – 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, etc. Second, Malthus believed that as more land was used in cultiva tion, each new piece of land would be able to grow less and less food then the previous plot of land.