Malthus defined two types of checks to population growth: preventive checks and positive checks. Preventive checks are those that affect the birth rate and include marrying at a later age. He also called these “moral restraint”. So Malthus stated that a family should not have any children before they cannot make sure that they can supply their kids.
According to Thomas Malthus, positive checks are those, that increase the death rate. These include war, plague, disease and famine. Malthus felt that the fear of famine or the development of famine was also a major impetus to reduce the birth rate. He indicates that potential parents are less likely to have children when they know that their children are likely to starve.
His theory was wrong because Malthus only considered two factors when he established his basic graphs: food supply and population growth. Other factors such as improvements in technology proved him wrong. Malthus wrote during an historical turning point because the Industrial revolution changed the long-term outlook for economic growth. However, nearly two centuries after Malthus, the overall quality of life has significantly improved. Because of scientific and technological advances in agriculture, food production has become much more efficient as population has increased. Smaller areas of land can now produce great amount of food that was once unimaginable in Malthus’ period. By the way, innovations have allowed mankind to find more efficient methods of energy use. For this reason, we can affirm that Malthus underestimated technology’s role in agriculture production and overestimated the problem of population growth.
Malthus was not only wrong in his prediction of the development of the economy, but also in his prediction of the demographic development. He assumed that population will continue to grow in a geometrical ratio as time goes on but as the Industrial revolution continued in Europe the growth of the population started to slow. Also Ricardo predicted that these two aspects about the growth of population are wrong in his theory.
The limits of innovation are unknown if even boundless but throughout our history, humans have been able to adapt to whatever population or environmental change. For this reason, we can maintain that Malthus’ population growth theory was wrong looking at India situation.
Overpopulation is a growing problem throughout the world at this stage in time. Currently, the world population has crossed over the six billion mark and is on an exponential path upwards. We well know that overpopulation and population growth places a tremendous amount of pressure on natural resources, which result in a chain reaction of problems as the nation grows. Negative effects of population growth and, specifically, overpopulation include poverty caused by low income per capita, famine, and disease: India is a prime example of Thomas Malthus’ theory of population growth and its effect on the economy. It is a country plagued by poverty, primarily caused by overpopulation. Inhabited by over 1,2 billion people, India has a population of three hundred million under the poverty line. A majority of the poor population is unemployed, starving, and is being forced to beg on the streets to make ends meet. In theory, more people may mean a country can produce and consume more goods and services, leading to economic growth. But this can only occur when employment opportunities grow at least as fast as the labor force and when people have access to the necessary education and training.
The overwhelming element in the theory is Malthusian diminishing returns to labor, as the stock of capital does not increase in the same proportion as labor does. Rising population promotes the need for some sort of technological change in order to meet the rising demands for certain goods and services. Therefore, the technological advancement that accompanies the growth of population and the expansion of population, allows for even more population to survive due to the rise in overall outputs by the business and the nation as a whole. Thus, it generates demands for goods and results in overall economic growth. The rising population provides a supply of labor and contributes to the increase in output of goods.
Through Indian fiscal policies and the rise in the education among citizen’s, India was able to generate a high employment which led to an increase in the output of goods and services.
Yet, there still is a rising problem in India concerning poverty and malnutrition. But, through the theory that population growth has a positive effect on economic growth, India will prosper in the long run.
In the end, India, has become one of the world’s fastest growing economies, primarily due to the rise in population growth creating a positive effect on its long run economic growth. India is now ranked one of the top producers in agriculture and is a top nation in terms of GDP in a developing country. In many cases, economists are correct in saying that population growth has a positive effect on economic growth of a nation. In reality, economists might say, "If it weren’t for its high populations India would still be a suffering developing nation."
Words number : 1006
by
saruccia (student)
