Malthusianism
He also worried that the effect of contraceptive use would be too powerful in curbing growth, conflicting with the common 18th century perspective (to which Malthus himself adhered) that a steadily growing population remained a necessary factor in the continuing "progress of society", generally.[14][15][3][16] Many critics believe Malthusianism has been discredited since the publication of Principle of Population, often citing advances in agricultural techniques and modern reductions in human fertility.[18][19][better source needed] In spite of the variety of criticisms against it, the Malthusian argument remains a major discourse based on which national and international environmental regulations are promoted."[20] However, the propensity for population increase also leads to a natural cycle of abundance and shortages: We will suppose the means of subsistence in any country just equal to the easy support of its inhabitants.The situation of the labourer being then again tolerably comfortable, the restraints to population are in some degree loosened; and the same retrograde and progressive movements with respect to happiness are repeated.Famine seems to be the last, the most dreadful resource of nature.Should success be still incomplete, gigantic inevitable famine stalks in the rear, and with one mighty blow levels the population with the food of the world.Malthus faced opposition from economists both during his life and since.Principle of Population was specifically written as a rebuttal to thinkers like William Godwin and the Marquis de Condorcet, and Malthus's own father who believed in the perfectibility of humanity.The act was described by opponents as "a Malthusian bill designed to force the poor to emigrate, to work for lower wages, to live on a coarser sort of food",[25] which initiated the construction of workhouses despite riots and arson.[1] According to Dan Ritschel of the Center for History Education at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, The great Malthusian dread was that "indiscriminate charity" would lead to exponential growth in the population in poverty, increased charges to the public purse to support this growing army of the dependent, and, eventually, the catastrophe of national bankruptcy.[1] Although a "conservationist" movement in the United States concerned itself with resource depletion and natural protection in the first half of the twentieth century, Desrochers and Hoffbauer write, "It is probably fair to say ... that it was not until the publication of Osborn's and Vogt's books [1948] that a Malthusian revival took hold of a significant segment of the American population".To manage population growth with respect to food supply, Malthus proposed methods which he described as preventive or positive checks: Malthusian theory is a recurrent theme in many social science venues.[11] Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the Bolshevik Party and the main architect of the Soviet Union was a critic of Neo-Malthusian theory (but not of birth control and abortion in general).[36] There was a general "neo-Malthusian" revival in the mid-to-late 1940s, continuing through to the 2010s after the publication of two influential books in 1948 (Fairfield Osborn's Our Plundered Planet and William Vogt's Road to Survival).The neo-Malthusian revival has drawn criticism from writers who claim the Malthusian warnings were overstated or premature because the green revolution has brought substantial increases in food production and will be able to keep up with continued population growth.Responding to Simon, Al Bartlett reiterates the potential of population growth as an exponential (or as expressed by Malthus, "geometrical") curve to outstrip both natural resources and human ingenuity.[46] From approximately 2004 to 2011, concerns about "peak oil" and other forms of resource depletion became widespread in the United States, and motivated a large if short-lived subculture of neo-Malthusian "peakists".[52] The more recent emergence of bio-energy with carbon capture (BECCS) as a prevalent "negative emissions" strategy for reaching Paris Climate Accord goals is another such pressure.Some researchers contend that a British breakout occurred due to technological improvements and structural change away from agricultural production, while coal, capital, and trade played a minor role.This in turn led to sustained "downward mobility": the descendants of the rich becoming more populous in British society and spreading middle-class values such as hard work and literacy.In response, the growth rate of the world's population accelerated rapidly, resulting in predictions by Paul R. Ehrlich, Simon Hopkins,[64] and many others of an imminent Malthusian catastrophe.[71] In Ireland, where applying his thesis, Malthus proposed that "to give full effect to the natural resources of the country a great part of the population should be swept from the soil",[72] there were early refutations.In Chartism (1839), he denied the possibility that "twenty-four millions" of English "working people[s]", "scattered over a hundred and eighteen thousand square miles of space", could collectively "take a resolution" to diminish the supply of labourers "and act on it".[86] Barry Commoner believed in The Closing Circle (1971) that technological progress will eventually reduce the demographic growth and environmental damage created by civilisation.While short-term trends, even on the scale of decades or centuries, cannot prove or disprove the existence of mechanisms promoting a Malthusian catastrophe over longer periods, due to the prosperity of a major fraction of the human population at the beginning of the 21st century, and the debatability of the predictions for ecological collapse made by Paul R. Ehrlich in the 1960s and 1970s, some people, such as economist Julian L. Simon who wrote The Ultimate Resource which it contends is human technology and medical statistician Hans Rosling questioned its inevitability.[90]Joseph Tainter asserts that science has diminishing marginal returns[92][incomplete short citation] and that scientific progress is becoming more difficult, harder to achieve, and more costly, which may reduce efficiency of the factors that prevented the Malthusian scenarios from happening in the past.
Thomas Robert Malthustheorypopulation growthMalthusian growth modelfood supplyresourceslinearpopulation declineoutpacesagriculturalproductionfaminepovertyinequalityassetscommoditiesdepopulationbirth ratessocial unrestrevolutionSocietal collapsepopulation controlAn Essay on the Principle of Populationstandard of livingIndustrial Revolutionextreme povertydeveloping countrieshuman overpopulationhuman population planningfamily planningMalthusian Leaguebirth controlenvironmental degradationGeorgistsMarxistssocialistslibertariansfree marketfeministsCatholicshuman rightsmisanthropicThomas MalthusFriedrich EngelsWilliam GodwinMarquis de Condorcetworking classpaternalismPoor Law Amendment Act 1834workhousesnational bankruptcyEugenicsLex Papia PoppaeaJewish views on incestIncest in the BibleEugenic feminismNazi eugenicsRacial hygieneLaw for the Prevention of HereditarilyDiseased OffspringHereditary Health CourtsLebensbornRomani HolocaustDoctors' TrialUS eugenicsSlave breeding in the USEugenics Survey of VermontOneida stirpicultureImmigration Act of 1924Sterilization law in the United StatesBuck v. BellDoe ex. rel. Tarlow v. District of ColumbiaMadrigal v. QuilliganPoe v. Lynchburg Training School & HospitalSkinner v. OklahomaStump v. SparkmanVirginia Sterilization Act of 1924The Famous FiveSexual Sterilization ActJapanese eugenicsHispanic eugenicsMexican eugenicsSwedish sterilization program (1906–1975)Peruvian sterilization program (1990–2000)Population planning in SingaporeNeo-eugenicsHe Jiankui genome editing incidentHuman genetic enhancementReligious response to assistedreproductive technologyBrighamBurbankCarrellDavenportDarwin (Leonhard)DeCourcy WardEldertonFisherGaltonGoldscheidGruberGüntherHerseniJenningsKraepelinMagnussenManuilăMittmannMoreiraNordauOsborn (Henry Fairfield)PerkinsPérezPloetzQueteletSchallmayerScharffenbergSerebrovskySlaterSouthardStoddardVacher de LapougeVerschuerKarl EvangBell (Julia)BlackerCarterCattell