Jenny+J.+Malthus+B

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 * Section 1: Photo Booth Interview**

Script

Interviewer: This man was an English economist, sociologist, who studied modern population. He is the economist who has contributed to economics by giving the title of "the dismal science." Mr. Malthus, the famous, you are known to be a pessimist. What do you think about this name?

Malthus: Well let me explain how I got to write the famous essay I presume your talking about. I used to study at Jesus College, Cambridge. My father and I exchange many letters debating on the popular issues of the time. One day, my father became fascinated with a popular "Utopian" vision that promised eventually peace, prosperity, and equality for everyone. That's when I decided to write a long letter... about 50,000 words ... to my father, how this argument was not necessarily possible. My father was very impressed and he advised that I publish this letter. The result was ... "An Essay on the Principle of Population as It Affects The Future Improvement of Society." That was 1798. Good times.

Interviewer: What was so wrong with the Utopian vision that your father liked?

Malthus: At that time, there was Industrial Revolution which resulted in extreme poverty. Although many intellectuals just before my time who believed that the population growth was good for the economy since it added more labor. However, I saw that population growth will decrease production per person. Therefore, I could not see the problem positively but with some criticism.

Interviewer: I see. So, what is your opinion on population growth?

Malthus: In my book, I argue that we cannot avoid poverty and distress as our fate of mankind. The problem is that we will not have the utopian vision realized. The population will increase at a geometric rate, 1,2,4,8. While food supplies will increase at an arithmetic rate, 1,2,3,4,5. Berry, let me ask you, do we need food to live?

Interviewer: ... Yes.

Malthus: Do you think we can take away love between a man and a woman?

Interviewer: ... No.

Malthus: Ah Hah. Food is necessary to the existence of man and the passion between the sexes is also necessary and will not decrease. Therefore, according to the rate of population growth and food growth, population growth will eventually surpass the food supply growth. We have more people than the food we have. This will result in famine, misery, and subsistence standard of living for people in the world.

Interviewer: Wow........Thank you. That was it for today, an interview with a classical economist, Thomas Malthus.

 ** Secondly, That the passion between the sexes is necessary, and will remain nearly in its present state. **
 * Section 2: Primary and Secondary Sources**
 * Primary Source**
 *  First, That food is necessary to the existence of man.    **
 *  Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio. Subsistence increases only in an arithmetical ratio.    **
 *  A slight acquaintance with numbers will shew the immensity of the first power in comparison of the second. By that law of our nature which makes food necessary to the life of man, the effects of these too unequal powers must be kept equal. This implies a strong and constantly operating check on population from the difficulty of subsistence. This difficulty must fall some where; and must necssarily be severely felt by a large portion of mankind.     **

Through the animal and vegetable kingdoms, nature has scattered the seeds of life abroad with the most profuse and liberal hand. She has been comparatively sparing in the room, and the nourishment necessary to rear them. The germs of existence contained in this spot of earth, with ample food, and ample room to expand in, would fill millions of worlds in the course of a few thousand years. Necessity, that imperious all pervading law of nature, restrains them within the prescribed bounds. The race of plants, and the race of animals shrink under this great restrictive law. And the race of man cannot, by any efforts of reason, escape from it. Among plants and animals its effects are waste of seed, sickness, and premature death. Among mankind, misery and vice. The former, misery, is an absolutely necessary consequence of it. Vice is a highly probable consequence, and we therefore see it abundantly prevail; but it ought not, perhaps, to be called an absolutely necessary consequence. The ordeal of virtue is to resist all temptation to evil. This natural inequality of the two powers of population, and of production in the earth, and that great law of our nature which must constantly keep their effects equal, form the great difficulty that to me appears insurmountable in the way to the perfectibility of society. All other arguments are of slight and subordinate consideration in comparison of this. I see no way by which man can escape from the weight of this law which pervades all animated nature. No fancied equality, no agrarian regulations in their utmost extent, could remove the pressure of it even for a single century. And it appears, therefore, to be decisive against the possible existence of a society, all the members of which, should live in ease, happiness, and comparative leisure; and feel no anxiety about providing the means of subsistence for themselves and families. ** Consequently, if the premises are just, the argument is conclusive against the perfectibility of the mass of mankind. **
 *     By that law of our nature which makes food necessary to the life of man, the effects of these too unequal powers must be kept equal. This implies a strong and constantly operating check on population from the difficulty of subsistence. This difficulty must fall some where; and must necssarily be severely felt by a large portion of mankind.       **

From Thomas R. Malthus, //First Essay on Population// (London: Macmillan,1926), pp. i, 11-17, 26-31, 37-38. "Modern History Sourcebook: Malthus: Essay on Population 1798." FORDHAM.EDU. 7 Dec. 2008 __http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1798malthus.html____________ __**Secondary Source**


 * Thomas Malthus was an English economist, sociologist, and member of the clergy who pioneered modern population study. He was a kind, gentle person dedicated to his father and his church. He was also the economist who is credited with giving economics the title of "the dismal science." **
 * From Mcgraw-Hill. **__**Economics: Principles and Practices, Student Edition**__**. Columbus, OH: Glencoe/Mcgraw-Hill, 2007.**


 * 1. What events in history made Malthus argue that population growth will one day surpass the food supply growth? **

**  **<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; white-space: pre-wrap;"> 3. If Malthus is right about the theory that population growth will surpass the food supply growth, what consequences will result in the future? **
 * <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; white-space: pre-wrap;"> 2. How do these three laws that Malthus wrote relate to each other?


 * Section 3**