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| Thomas Robert Malthus |
Since the end
of the eighteenth century, apocalyptic warnings as regards the unstoppable
increase of the world population have followed one another. In 1798, Thomas
Robert Malthus published An essay on the principle of population, as
it affects the future improvement of society, with remarks on the speculations
of Mr. Godwin, M. Condorcet, and other writers. This essay includes the
famous quotation:
Assuming then my postulata as
granted, I say, that the power of population is indefinitely greater than the
power in the earth to produce subsistence for man.
Population, when unchecked, increases
in a geometrical ratio. Subsistence increases only in an arithmetical ratio. A
slight acquaintance with numbers will shew the immensity of the first power in
comparison of the second.
