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Introduction
Thomas Malthus was an English economist who made projections about population growth and based his theory on the population explosion that had begun to show signs in the eighteenth century. He argued that the population would increase at a faster rate compared to the increase in the supply of food. His theory provided that ultimately the size of the population would reach a level whereby there would be a limit to the available resources and any subsequent increase in the number of people would cause a crash in the population by the occurrence of natural circumstances such as famine, disease, war, high infant mortality and war or moral restraints.
Malthus was quite unoptimistic about the outcomes and believed that measures such as adopting moral restraints in controlling births would be able to prevent the impending predicament (T R Malthus, 1798). His theory has proved to be true with the widespread famines in Ethiopia and other countries where poverty, civil war and drought have adversely impacted agricultural outputs. On a positive note, the agrarian revolutions in developed countries such as the UK and USA significantly increased food production and measures initiated in contraception resulted in a reduced birth rate. In keeping with such trends, some countries such as India and China have adopted policies to control growth in population.
There has been considerable disagreement with the assertions made by Malthus in regard to his theory, especially in modern times. His claim that the size of the population needs to be curbed is believed by many to be unwarranted because trends have shown during the past that high growth in population does not adversely impact development. They argue that there is a natural tendency for population to control itself and human beings are themselves a resource since a larger population implies that there are many more minds involved in the invention of new technologies to consistently cater to the growing demands of a larger population. They have dismissed the idea that scarcity of resources will result because data clearly indicates that after adjusting prices for inflation, they have actually declined with time. Since modern economic theories provide for higher supplies to result in lower prices of goods and services, it leads to the conclusion that the available resources are not diminishing.
Neo Malthusianism relates to the original ideas of Malthus and its supporters believe that although the growth in resources is taking place but at any given time there is a finite quantity of the severable resources that are non renewable whereby there will be a time when they will be depleted and the population will suffer from severe shortages. There are some differences between Neo Malthusians and Malthus. While Malthus believed that the troubles from excess population would eventually start some time in the coming future, Neo Malthusians are of the opinion that the adversities such as drought and famine would occur very soon. Neo Malthusians favor the use of contraceptive measures and other birth control practices to control and curb population growth.
Opponents of Malthus and Neo Malthusians argue that there have been several long spells when there was in fact a reduction in the incidents of famine, and trends in the present times have shown that lesser and lesser number of people die because of famine and drought every year (Chakravarthi Raghavan, 2000). Theorists who agree with Malthus point out that there will eventually be a total depletion of resources, as can be seen in the reducing reserves of oil. However, the opponents counter this argument in saying that even forty years ago, it was said that oil reserves will be depleted, and even now, experts say that the reserves will last another forty years. They say that even if there is a shortage of oil, humans will be able to find alternate sources of fuel and energy. Theorists who do not agree with Malthus have argued that whatever shortage humanity suffers in terms of shortage of natural resources will be compensated for my new discoveries and alternate sources (C Niall Damencha, 2008).
Conclusion
However, the world population continues to grow, and it is difficult to conclude whether the size of the population should be decreased. There will always be an increase in the growth rate of population until it is conclusively proved that excess population will result in harm to humanity.
References
C Niall Damencha, Advocates and Opponents of Malthusian Theory, 2008, Socyberty.
Chakravarthi Raghavan, Malthusian Thinking Provides No Security, 2000.
T R Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population (London, 1798); A Chase, The Legacy of Malthus (New York, 1977).
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