Population pressure Pressure of liberty Overpopulation Commentary

Thomas Robert Malthus demography

Population pressure

• “Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio.
• Subsistence increases only in an arithmetical ratio.”
• Simple mathematics and his convictions
• as a retired Anglican clergyman
• led Thomas Robert Malthus to assert
• that natural or “positive” checks to overpopulation
• increase the death rate,
• but that “preventive” checks
• could reduce the birth rate.
• Malthius advocated the education of the lower class
• about voluntary abstinence.
• This began the study of principles and mechanisms
• that influenced social scientists and politicians
• and ended the dole in eighteen thirty-four
• leaving the old, the sick, and the poor
• to die in the streets.

Pressure of liberty

• Have we finally learned
• violence can not solve problems?
• Have we learned
• other people are human like ourselves?
• Evidence to the contrary—
• our wars and armaments
• our tariffs and border security
• our nationalism and tribalism
• our hatreds and fears.
• Infant mortality,
• epidemics,
• famines,
• natural disasters,
• emigration,
• repression,
• wars, genocides, terrorism,
• and other crimes against humanity
• are harsh measures
• but do the job
• that good people like ourselves
• can’t take responsibility for.
• Other people are free to mess up their own lives
• but not to mess with us.

Overpopulation

• Assuming people continue to act as they have acted
• our population on this planet would continue to grow.
• Assuming science and agriculture
• could keep ahead of our needs
• if only distribution were equitable
• although we know distribution is never equitable,
• then we will not need to practice genocide or infanticide
• or watch others cruelly suffer
• or eat each other;
• however, we may need to continue to ignore
• evidence of inhumanity and ignorance
• leading to misery and evil
• as our best efforts to help
• continue to fall short.