The Malthus Principle - Importance in Todays World

Between 1798 and 1826, a British political economist and demographer by the name of Thomas Malthus wrote a six edition treatise, An Essay on the Principle of Population. According to his treatise, population grows at a geometric rate, while food supply grows at an arithmetic rate. A further simplified explanation of this would be, population tends to grow faster then the food supply, keeping most people on the verge of starvation.

According to Gregory Clark , an economist at UC Davis, for better part of our history (i.e. till year 1800), the world economy was trapped in some sort of a Malthusian Trap - any increase in production efficiency as a result of new technology resulted in a comparable population increase, which consumed the extra surplus of food, resources etc, pushing the average income back to the original levels. According to Dr Clark, The Industrial Revolution helped increase the efficiency of production at a greater rate then the overall population growth, allowing the economy to get out of this Malthusian Trap.

For better part of the last 200 years, the world witnessed an exponential growth in the population and an improved standard of living. According to the latest estimates, the United Nations predicts the world population to be at 8 billion by 2025 compared to 6.6 billion today. An average person is consuming more resources which is putting pressure on the environment and the world economy. This is evident today in the higher prices for food, energy and every other conceivable resource.

Some economists have suggested that we may be at a tipping point, where the improvements in efficiencies and the amount of resources we are consuming are not enough to sustain the exponential increase in population growth. In a recent article published in the Wall Street Journal economists and academicians talk about how these New Limits to Growth are reviving "Malthusian Fears".

Finding solutions to some of these problems may not be ease. It will require cooperations from Governments, Industry, Academics and above all the Consumers. In order to sustain the level economic growth to offset the exponential growth in population, investments in new technologies in the fields of agriculture and renewable energy are needed. This is the only way out to prevent the human race from entering into another Malthusian Trap .