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Hi Malthus,

To start off, I understand your idea that population growth may be an obstacle for the production of crops, land, etc. and that self-interest theory is an opposing view based on your beliefs.

However, I would have to say that the economic market is a dynamic and evolutionary process in which people change various and innumerable factors of production, supply, demand, etc.; in other words, even with the growth of population, there won't be a hindrance in the production of crops since there will be a supplement or complement in place of the shortage. In fact, economy does not become magically dynamic. The government's constant regulation of of individual and whole markets naturally makes the economy dynamic. Market economy, therefore, depends on human behavior (self-interest) and will gradually change according to the change of time, regardless the population.

- Alfred Marshall

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February 13, 1766 – December 29, 1834
English cleric, scholar, and Professor of History and Political Economy. Influential in the fields of political economy and demography.
Studies population. Referred to as "Pop" or "Population" Malthus by his students.

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(Population Growth)

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(Malthusian Trap)

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"Malthus was influential in the fields of political economy and demography" (Wikipedia).

Theory of Evolution:
His work made Darwin realize the strifes of overpopulation

Modern influence:
Higher population does reduce income per capita is still relevant in places that are still developing. However, this may not affect huge populations with

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4112762/

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Human population grows exponentially, whereas food production rates grows arithmetically.

"Malthus suggested that there was a potential for a population increase to 256 billion within 200 years" (cgge).

Due to the exponential growth of the human population and his religious beliefs, Malthus believed that people should refrain from reproducing until capable of supporting a family

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Malthus expresses his concerns for population growth as a factor that would hinder the production of crops. An increase in human population would mean that humans would overtake the development of sufficient land and food, and thus the world would lose its ability to feed itself.

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Malthus claims that society has a natural tendency to increase population whenever possible.

As the standard of living improves, population increases.
As population increases, the standard of living gets brought down back to the original level. Thus, he also believed that life span shortened, as more and more people would be living in terrible living conditions.

Neo-Malthusianism links the Malthusian theory to resource depletion and environmental damage caused by overpopulation.

Some economists think that the Malthusian Trap is weakened in developed countries after the Industrial Revolution.

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Hi Thomas,

I appreciate your work towards the concept of overpopulation and your attempts to predict the course of demographics. It seems like your theories are true to some extent...

I will not find fault with the accuracies of your model as I myself have not made predictions in terms of demographics. But I would disagree on your over-the-top emphasis on overpopulation. I firmly believe that society will benefit from economic growth lead by specialization and self-interests of people. I disagree with your claim of "people should refrain from reproducing until capable of supporting a family". Clearly, one must support the self-interests of people and not oppress them with your unnecessarily dark vision of the future.

-Adam Smith

Hi Adam,

You're interesting. However, you must realize that I am not oppressing anyone at all. I give the facts, I do the math, my calculations are reasonable. I see not why anyone shouldn't know about the detriments of overpopulation before it's too late!

-Thomas

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Hi Thomas,

I find your idea of overpopulation and Malthusian Trap very interesting. Especially when human population grows exponentially, whereas food production rate grows arithmetically. I’ve never looked at the area of population in my career time. But I do have some concerns about the idea of growing population. What will you say about the idea when the population is dropping instead of increasing? And I do very respect religion, but how would you combine your own religion and economical ideas in your theory? Furthermore, for your Malthusian Trap, how can you be sure that as the condition gets better, the life span and population will increase? Is there any exceptions?  I'd like to hear more about your ideas.
-Arthur Pigou

Mr. Pigou,

I will answer your questions in list form by order:

1) Yes, which is why I believe creative destruction is the key. Governments should help with this. Populations will never drop to a very low point, just think about how many people are in the world right now. Even if a major volcanic erruption or volcano wipe out humanity, it's not like there would be one big enough to wipe out the human race, and even then what would overpopulation do to help? Create more tension between mankind???

2) Explained already

3) Who knows how capital would improve over the next few years? you can't predict the future. And i'm simply avoiding the worst.

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Thomas! It's been a good many years, my friend... Strange how you are referring to yourself in third person here...

Anyways, let's get down to business. As we've discussed previously, I do agree with the logic of your population growth theories. It makes perfect sense to me the pointing out of the relationship between an exponentially/geometrically growing population and an arithmetically growing food supply being the cause of rate of increase in the former will/does far surpass the rate of increase in the latter, creating a deficit and therefore scarcity.

One thing we've discussed much in past years you've not thought to mention here - you're stances on the Corn Laws and theory of value based on LABOR.

First - those damn Corn Laws were the prime example of the downfalls of having the government play a role in economics. Their raising of import taxes made it impossible to bring supply from outside the border, where quantities were more bountiful. This raised the food prices, as demand spiked. It caused a FAMINE, Thomas. Not the best.

Also - In my opinion, value can and should be determined through clear-cut, systematic methods based on distinct variables; labor as a factor is not, in and of itself, definitive enough to be a reliable determinant for value. Costs of production, however, are. Cost is clear, indisputable fact. It's a number - very much quantifiable. This is what should be used to determine value.

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Your influence on political economics is greatly appreciated. Your approach to economics with human populations is interesting and I completely agree.

Hi Keynes,
Thank you.
-Thomas

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Hi Mr. Malthus, I have looked at your diagram of population and resources. You claim that population grows exponentially and food supply grows linearly, so I have a few questions for you, how do you know that population will keep increasing exponentially but not decrease? What if there's a nuclear war in the future? And how do you know that food supply will increase at a constant rate? If population increase exponentially, there will be more demand in resources and eventually it will become more scarce, will the supply in food still increase? So, I don't think your diagram is completely reliable. I think the food supply should be a quatratic line instead of linear because as the population increases, the labor section of FOP will increase which means that there will be more food produced. But as the population increases, the demand for food will increase directly, and due to the scarcity of resources eg. usable water and usable land, the supply of food will reach a peak and will decrease sharply.

Hi Joseph Schumpeter,

I know not of what "nuclear wars" are, because I live in the 1800s. If you are referring to war, I completely agree upon what you're saying about war. Food is scarce, and because of an increased population will there be havoc around the world.

Also human labor is a FOP  that will increase, and just because Labor is increased doesn't mean that people will be fed more. FOP depend on each other, an increase in one wouldn't solve anything.

Also weren't you an advocate of "creative destruction"? Why are you against any of my ideals?

-Thomas Malthus

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Dear Thomas Malthus,

I found your model on population growth versus resource growth exceptionally interesting. I believe that the data gathered from it supports my belief that the state should hold control over the major resources in society, as it is the only way to prevent the growing gap between social classes from growing larger as the population increases exponentially, thus resulting in scarcity and a highly competitive market.

It is my belief that people should not have to fight for basic human necessity and rights, and the only way to guarantee equal treatment for all humans, regardless of class or wealth, is if the state intervenes.

-Marx

Mr. Marx,

Yes, I completely agree.

-Thomas