The theory of Malthus is brief. Malthus and his theory of population

Thomas R. Malthus was a representative of the classical economic school of the 18th and 19th centuries. His main works were published in 1798 and 1820. Malthus and his "theory of population" made a great contribution to the development of science.

Biography

Malthus was born in 1766, on February 14. His father was a very remarkable person. He was fond of science, maintained friendly ties with Hume and Rousseau. In 1788, Malthus graduated from the Jesuit College of the University of Cambridge. According to the existing custom, as a younger son, he had to begin a spiritual career. After college, Malthus took the dignity. In 1793 he received a theological degree. From 1797 to 1803, Malthus was a vicar in one of the Surrey parishes. However, from his youth he was fascinated by science. Therefore, Malthus began to teach at the same time. All his free time was occupied by research of problems of interrelation of the economic phenomena with natural processes. In 1805 he accepted an offer to become a professor at the Department of Modern History and Political Economy of the College of the East India Company. Here he also served as a priest.

Theory of Malthus (briefly)

She became the main work of his life. The first edition was published in 1798 anonymously. Malthus and his theory of population caused then numerous attacks. This is basically what caused the fact that from 1799 to 1802 he began to travel to some European countries. During the trips he collected information, statistical data. All this information was used by him to adjust his work. After this tour in 1803, already under his own name, he publishes a new supplemented edition of the book. Subsequent works were also significantly expanded and updated. The theory of Malthus, briefly, became an extensive treatise, including historical digressions, a critical analysis of the work of other authors.

Specificity of compilation

In the very first edition of the theory of population of Malthus summarized his theses concerning the demographic situation of a number of countries. However, when compiling the essay, the author was not aware of even simple statistical data not only from other states, but also from England itself. For example, he believed that the population of Britain - 7 million people. According to the census conducted in 1801, this number was almost 11 million. In preparation for the second edition, he took into account not only the received statistical information, but also the data of church records. In addition, the theory of Malthus was supplemented by information on other countries. During his life, six editions were published. Each time the theory of Malthus was published in ever larger circulation.

The nature and increase of ground rent

This is another extensive work that was created by Malthus. It was published in 1815. In this work, the author, based on the natural nature of income from the land, tried to disclose the mechanisms of its formation and increase, to justify the value of rent in the realization of the aggregate product released by society. But his final judgments were expressed somewhat later. In 1820, his second major work was published, in which the economic theory of Malthus was reflected.

The essence of the concept of 1798

Thomas Malthus and his theory of the original goal put improvement in human life. In his work the author uses various categories and concepts. In his work there are not only economic, but also natural-philosophical, sociological, aesthetic, and religious concepts. In his work he considered the demographic problem irrespective of any social development as a whole. The theory of population of T. Malthus was expressed as an eternal, unshakable, natural and inevitable law of nature. The author argued that the number of people increases in geometric, and means for existence in an arithmetic progression. According to the theory of population of T. Malthus, after two centuries the ratio between the number of people and means would be 256: 9, and after three - 4096: 13. After 2000 years, the gap between the categories would be incalculable and limitless. This theory of T. Malthus will subsequently be called the law of declining soil fertility. Doubling the number of inhabitants of the planet, according to the author, will be equivalent to the fact that the size of the Earth will be reduced by half. The more people there are, the less there will be cultivated land for each person. In this regard, there is a tendency to lag behind the expansion of the volume of food resources from the increase in the number of inhabitants of the planet. The theory of Malthus was not based on any real facts. The author proceeded only from assumptions that were not supported by reliable evidence, materials that had at least some significant practical significance.

Contradiction

The theory of Malthus, however, contains one fact. But he not only fails to substantiate his assumptions, but, on the contrary, speaks of his lack of conscientiousness as a scientist. The author mentions in his reflections about the doubling of the population of North America in a quarter of a century. He believes that this fact confirms his assumption of an increase in the number of people in a geometric progression. But in reality, as the thinker himself points out, the growth in the number of inhabitants does not occur unchecked. The author notes that the thesis of doubling does not hold. It is easy to calculate that in another case for a thousand years the number of people would have increased 240 times. This means that if in 1001 g. E. 2 people would live, then in 2001 there would be 2 x 1012 (or 2 trillion people). This amount is approximately 300 times less than the actual value today.

Problems in the concept

Reproduction in a geometric progression is possible, according to the author, only under certain specific conditions. In reality, however, a person is constantly confronted with various kinds of obstacles. To them, Malthus attributed the following problems:

1. Moral bridling. The author believed that the duty of each person is that before deciding to marry, he must achieve a state in which he will be able to provide means of subsistence for his offspring. At the same time, the propensity for family life must preserve its power to maintain energy and awaken the celibacy of the individual to the desire to achieve the desired level of well-being by labor.
2. Defects. To them, Malthus attributed unnatural ties, debauchery, desecration of the family bed, various tricks that are undertaken to hide the vicious links.
3. Misfortunes. The author considered hunger, war, plague, epidemics, various excesses, poor nutrition of children, excessive, hard work, harmful occupations and so on.

It should, however, be said that the doubling of the number actually took place at a certain stage in the development of society. But it happened because of migration, and not due to natural growth.

Poverty of people

According to the theory of Malthus, the main causes of poverty are not the problems of social organization in society. The poor have no right to demand anything from the rich. In the author's opinion, the latter are not guilty of the insolvency of the former. The theory of poverty of Malthus is based on the fact that poverty to a small extent or does not depend on the form of government or the unequal distribution of benefits. The rich are not able to provide the poor with food and work. In this regard, the poor, in fact, do not have the right to demand food or exercise. Thus, according to the theory of population of Malthus, the main causes of poverty are inevitable natural laws.

Purpose of the concept

It reveals itself directly in the reasoning of the author. The theory of Malthus is oriented toward paralyzing the workers' class struggle, proving the futility and baselessness of the demands that the proletariat presents to the bourgeoisie. The author especially stressed that the introduction and dissemination of his idea among the poor will have a beneficial effect on the working masses, which, of course, was beneficial to the ruling class. Malthus made every effort to deprive the soil of the struggle of the proletariat. At the same time he himself cynically and openly opposed the fulfillment of the elementary requirements of justice, the life rights of workers. The author suggested that the proletariat itself is guilty of its own failure. The proletariat can reduce its poverty only by reducing the birth rate. By measures to combat the increase in the number of people, he considered moral curbing, unhappiness, abstinence from beggar marriages, exhausting work, illnesses, wars, epidemics, famine. In this he saw the only effective and natural means by which you can destroy "superfluous people."

The theory of "third parties" of Malthus

The author acted as a categorical opponent of Ricardo's concept of value. Malthus suggested that the subsequent development of labor theory can lead to exposing the problems of capitalism. In addition, based on Ricardo's ideas, he discovered the parasitic nature of income from the land. He argued that for the prosperity of the nation it is necessary that in a country with progressive productive forces there should be a certain number of "third parties" - non-working consumers. Among them, in his opinion, will be realized part of the production, making profit of the capitalists. This will solve the problem of income distribution.

Effect

Almost immediately after the publication of the theory of reproduction of Malthus was the subject of discussions among public figures, researchers and among non-professionals. In addition to the followers of the concept, there were opponents of the provisions. Some of the critics have advanced rather constructive arguments. The work of Malthus was subsequently referred to by specialists from a wide range of scientific fields. His work had a key influence on the formation of the concept of Darwin.

Criticism of Marxists

Representatives of the classical school revealed the reactionary role of the theory of population. Marx proved that the essence of the concept is based on the substitution of specific social and economic laws of capitalism with "immutable and eternal" natural postulates. Marx proved that there is no theory of population at all. For each social formation, its own specific law is inherent. Absolute overpopulation is not and can not be. The growth of numbers is a relative phenomenon. It emerges as a specific feature of the capitalist system arising under the law of accumulation. It is this, and not by natural laws, that determines the poverty of the proletariat. As the main "argument", Malthus used an unscientific law on declining fertility. The Marxists sharply criticized this concept. They argued that the author and his supporters did not take into account the increase in the productive forces, the progress of technology. Lenin, criticizing the theory, said that there is not at all the difficulty of obtaining food, but the problem with food for only a specific class of society - the proletariat. This difficulty is determined by specific capitalist, and not by natural laws.

Mises's opinion

This author attached special importance to the influence of the concept of Malthus on the theory of liberalism. Mises believed that the proposed assumptions act as a social doctrine of liberalism. As the core of this idea, he called the theory of the division of labor. Only with a close relationship with this concept can true interpret the social conditions of the theory of Malthus. The society appears as an association of people for the better use of natural factors of existence. In fact, society is a ban on the mutual extermination of people. In society, mutual assistance is used instead of struggle. This forms the main motivation for the behavior of its members. Within the framework of society there should be no struggle, only peace exists there. Any opposition, in its essence, slows down the social cooperation. Mises gives his explanation of the conclusions of Malthus. He says that private ownership of production assets is a regulative principle. It provides a balance between an increasing number of consumers and a shrinking volume of resources. This principle forms the dependence for each individual of the quota on the economic product, which is reserved from the coefficient of labor and property. He finds his expression in reducing the level of fertility under the influence of society, eliminating superfluous members of society by analogy with the plant or animal world. In the human population, the function of the struggle for existence is realized by a "moral brake that limits offspring".

Protection of the concept

Mises, among other things, rejects the charges put forward by Malthus in cruelty and misanthropy. The author warns readers against incorrect conclusions. He says that there is no and can not exist in society a struggle for survival. Mises believes that making such barbarous conclusions on the basis of the theory of Malthus is a gross error. He argued: statements, taken out of context and used for a misinterpretation, are explained by the inadequacy and incompleteness of the first edition of the work. The original edition was compiled before the idea of classical political economy was formed.

Using the concept

Despite the general scientific inadequacy of the theory of population, it had great success in bourgeois circles. This was due to the fact that the class demands of this part of society were highly satisfied with the ideas. The most sinister role of the concept is noted at the present time. The active dissemination of the ideas of neo-Malthusianism in different interpretations is due to an accelerated increase in the population (mostly in developing countries). This trend is accompanied by an exacerbation of environmental problems, an increase in the gap in the level of progress between countries.

Roman Club

It is a non-governmental organization of international level. It unites social, political, scientific figures from many countries of the world. The Roman club put forward the thesis that by the middle of the 20th century mankind had reached the boundaries of exponential growth within a limited space. This idea was presented at the first report in 1972. In 1974, one of the models for solving global problems was substantiated, the concept of improving the world system in the plane of limited growth. The latter is understood as the procedure of structural differentiation, which has significant differences from an exclusively quantitative undifferentiated increase. The authors use this concept with respect to the growth of the world system in a manner similar to the development of the organism, within which specialization of various elements is noted and their mutual mutual dependence is functional. The need for such an approach, according to the participants, is conditioned by the interdependence of crisis phenomena. They include, in particular, demographic, raw materials, energy, food, natural and other problems.

Conclusion

If, by the next century, intrafamily planning spreads to almost all the inhabitants of the planet, and if such a restriction exists at the level of 2.2-2.5 children per marriage, there are reasons to believe that by the end of the 21st century the number of people On the Earth is stabilized to 11-12 billion people. As the most important prerequisites in solving the problem of regulating the increase in the human population, profound spiritual and social transformations, raising the cultural and material level of the peoples living on the planet are taking place. In this case, there is no talk about the forced limitation of the birth rate, according to the theory put forward by Malthus. The essence of solving problems is the development and implementation of a number of thoughtful measures. Only thanks to this approach in some states and regions, the increase in the number of inhabitants should accelerate, and in others it starts to slow down. Dictated by the ecological imperative, the need for an objective, conscious limitation of the population increase necessitates a call to the neo-Malthusian concept. The interconnection of factors in it is two-sided. The work of Malthus laid the foundation for the further improvement of the demographic trend in the science of economic development.