According to The New Palgrave: a Dictionary of Economics, Thomas Malthus's philosophy on population centers on the idea that human populations will increase until checked by natural limitations. This essay was based in part on observations made by Malthus during his travels in the North of Europe in 1799. According to Malthus, the principal limitation is the food supply. Malthus believed that population will always increase at a geometrical rate, while food production can only increase at an arithmetical rate. Critics suggested his theory of population would only be relevant in the distant future when the population had grown to the point that all parts of the world were fully populated, but Malthus maintained that his concerns were universal and immediate.
Malthus wrote that vice and misery were the only two ways to control population growth. Malthus stated that a population that grew too large would result in even more vice and misery. Malthus suggested that even though high fertility might increase the gross output, it tended to reduce output per capita (Eatwell et al. 281-284).
According to Wikipedia online, Julian Simon is an economist who disagreed with Malthus. Simon believed that despite the predictions of Malthus, geometric population growth would not necessarily outstrip the ability to provide that population with its basic subsistnece needs thanks in part to the increses in th standard of living made possible by improvements in technology (Thomas Malthus).
Malthus's theory that population increases at a geometrical rate and food supply increases at an arithmetical rate has long since been proved false. Today food is produced with a high caliber of technology and it has been proved that population will not increase over food supply. MalthusÆ concerns about population growth remain relevant today in spite of SimonÆs suggestion that technological advances would allow output to exceed population frowth. What
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