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Thursday, March 28, 2024

The Misunderstood Malthusian?

Courtesy of Nattering Naybob

Superficially, Thomas Malthus postulated that at a certain point, humans would outstrip the planets resources.  With emphasis on temporal proximity, to date said theory has been proved wrong by technological advances.

Yet, for the unforeseeable future said determination is ever TBD. Because of that never ending possibility and as there is much more to the theory, Malthus is often misquoted and misunderstood.  We shall now endeavor to scratch and Natter at what we think is Malthus common sense and given the nature of man, eternal wisdom.

Although technological advances usually allow for more with less, with a growing population, mankind always hits a temporal wall or temporary limit which spawns management crisis, resource allocation and self interest decisions.  

Therefore, with a constantly growing population, increases in productivity can never fully address basic problems in distribution, and thus, necessity is the mother of invention.

While at cyclic technological impasse or limit, and until the next technological advance, which inevitably allows for further expansion of the population until the next impasse, there are two ways the distribution problem is temporarily overcome.?

Read more here >


 

This missive was inspired by and borrows from Frank W. Elwell's keynote address to the Annual Meeting of the Anthropologists and Sociologists of Kentucky, November 2, 2001, entitled Reclaiming Malthus.

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