at poverty was normal and inequality inevitable.
Malthus affirmed that the population would be determined by the food supply. Famine, for example, was an indication of an excessive population, which would soon remedy itself and return to a natural balance through malnutrition and eventual starvation. Ricardo then asserted that society might as well keep the working class on the verge of starvation, thereby maximizing capital to be directed towards expansion, research, and development rather than wages. Furthermore, this "iron law of wages" would ensure the perpetuation of labor resource without an increase or decrease in the working class which could act to destabilize the
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