'Population problem' is the root of savagely deteriorated environment. The rich class of the 19th. century decried it as an ill and they also used to argue that it made the harsh environment of capitalist industrialism necessary. before 1700 the population growth of each century was about one million. Between 1700 and 1800, it was three million.

In 1798 T R Malthus wrote Essaay on the Principle of Population the central theme of which was that population in general are stricken with extreme poverty and efforts to overcome this situation would do more harm than good. He argued that human beings or for that matter all animals increase their population geometrically (1,2,2,4,8...) whereas the would thus increase only arithmetically (1,2,3,4...). Human population would be doubled in every 25 years.

The most important of his theory is the limitation of food production and supply. The application of additional labour, the extension of cultivation land and improved agriculture technique would not be able to stem the rot as all of the best land would eventually come under cultivation. So without any other check or control less supply of food or for that matter starvation would put a brake on the population growth at the rate at which the food supply would be coming.

Malthus advocated for checks on population growth: Preventive checks, those that reduced the birth rate and included sterility, sexual abstinence and birth control. Positive checks included increased death rate, misery, plague, war and famine. These checks maintain an equilibrium between population growth and available means of subsistence. Ultimately this check formula boiled down to “moral restraint, vice and misery”. He defined moral restraint as “the restraint from marriage which is not followed by irregular gratification. To him, the great difference between the rich and the poor was the greater moral restraint of the former. “Carelessness and want of frugality, vice and misery were the common amongst the poorer section. Along on the lines of his seminal thought Malthus opposed any measure that would smooth the harsh impact of the market on the poor.

Categories: Population [t]

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