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    Malthusian Theory:: Time (Years)

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    Malthusian theory examines the relationship between population growth and resources, arguing that population grows exponentially while food production increases arithmetically. This leads to a situation where populations can outgrow their resources, resulting in a "Malthusian catastrophe." Malthus believed natural disasters and human actions like war would act as "positive checks" to control population growth, while "preventative checks" like delayed marriage and celibacy could control birth rates. The "Malthusian trap" idea suggests that increased food production through technology leads to higher populations and eventual food shortages as populations outpace available land for growing food.

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    Malthusian Theory:: Time (Years)

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    73 views3 pages
    Malthusian theory examines the relationship between population growth and resources, arguing that population grows exponentially while food production increases arithmetically. This leads to a situation where populations can outgrow their resources, resulting in a "Malthusian catastrophe." Malthus believed natural disasters and human actions like war would act as "positive checks" to control population growth, while "preventative checks" like delayed marriage and celibacy could control birth rates. The "Malthusian trap" idea suggests that increased food production through technology leads to higher populations and eventual food shortages as populations outpace available land for growing food.

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    Malthusian theory

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    Malthusian theory examines the relationship between population growth and resources, arguing that population grows exponentially while food production increases arithmetically. This leads to a situation where populations can outgrow their resources, resulting in a "Malthusian catastrophe." Malthus believed natural disasters and human actions like war would act as "positive checks" to control population growth, while "preventative checks" like delayed marriage and celibacy could control birth rates. The "Malthusian trap" idea suggests that increased food production through technology leads to higher populations and eventual food shortages as populations outpace available land for growing food.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    73 views3 pages

    Malthusian Theory:: Time (Years)

    Uploaded by

    mary has
    Malthusian theory examines the relationship between population growth and resources, arguing that population grows exponentially while food production increases arithmetically. This leads to a situation where populations can outgrow their resources, resulting in a "Malthusian catastrophe." Malthus believed natural disasters and human actions like war would act as "positive checks" to control population growth, while "preventative checks" like delayed marriage and celibacy could control birth rates. The "Malthusian trap" idea suggests that increased food production through technology leads to higher populations and eventual food shortages as populations outpace available land for growing food.

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    Malthusian theory:

    In his 1798 work, An Essay on the Principle of Population, Malthus examined


    the relationship between population growth and resources. From this, he
    developed the Malthusian theory of population growth in which he wrote that
    population growth occurs exponentially, so it increases according to birth rate.
    For example, if every member of a family tree reproduces, the tree will continue
    to grow with each generation. On the other hand, food production increases
    arithmetically, so it only increases at given points in time. Malthus wrote that,
    left unchecked, populations can outgrow their resources. Let the population be
    ‘P’ which grows at the rate that doubles every 25 years.

    Pt =P0 er where r=0.028 & agricultural produce ‘A’ grows at an arithmetic rate in

    a linear manner by ‘a’ units every year.


    At = A0 + aT Assuming that P0=100 , A0 =100.

    Time(years) 0 25 50 75 100 125 150

    Population 100 200 400 800 1600 3200 6400

    Food Supply 100 350 600 850 1100 1350 1600

    Food Supply
    Population 1 1.75 1.5 1.06 0.69 0.42 0.25

    This table gives an illustration of the Malthusian theory


    From this, we can conclude that populations will grow faster than the supply of
    food. This exponential population growth will lead to a shortage of food. As
    shown in the above figure, ‘the point of crisis’ also called Malthusian
    catastrophe.

    Population Control: Malthus then argued that because there will be a


    higher population than the availability of food, many people will die from the
    shortage of food. He theorized that this correction would take place in the form
    of Positive Checks (or Natural Checks) and Preventative Checks. These checks
    would lead to the Malthusian catastrophe, which would bring the population
    level back to a ‘sustainable level.

    Positive Checks: He believed that natural forces would correct the imbalance
    between food supply and population growth in the form of natural disasters
    such as floods and earthquakes and human-made actions such as wars and
    famines. These are operated through the death rate.
    Preventive Checks: To correct the imbalance, Malthus also suggested using
    preventative measures to control the growth of the population. These measures
    include family planning, late marriages, and celibacy. These are operated
    through the control in birth rate. He also proposed restraint which means
    postponement of marriage until a person is adequately well off to support a
    family and the practice abstinence outside the marriage.

    Malthusian Trap: The Malthusian Trap (or “Malthusian Population Trap”) is the
    idea that higher levels of food production created by more advanced agricultural
    techniques create higher population levels, which then lead to food shortages
    because the higher population needs to live on land that would have previously
    used to grow crops. Even as technological advancement would normally lead to
    per capita income gains, theorizes Malthus, these gains are not achieved because in
    practice the advancement also creates population growth. Once the population
    exceeds what food supplies can support, this supposedly creates a Malthusian crisis
    with widespread famine as well as rampant disease. This ends up decreasing the
    population to earlier levels. The reality, however, has been that population growth
    has not itself created the crisis that Malthus predicted. We will discuss the ways in
    which the Malthusian Trap has been disproven in the following section.

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