Question

English economist. Many of his ideas and writings were about population growth exceeding the food supply. These writings would influence many political debates, the writings in the press, and even literature of the time period
Question 4 options:


Queen Victoria


Charles Dickens


Charles Darwin


Thomas Malthus

Answer 1

The correct answer is: "Thomas Malthus"

Thomas Malthus (1766 - 1834) was the author of the economic models which stated that, up to a point, the pace of growth of the world's population would exceed its capacity of producing food (given a fixed endownment of resources for such production and some specific technology level). This scenario would trigger demographic crises and population checks in the future, and people would even die for starvation until the balance could be restored.

He did not consider, though, that the endowment of resources and the technology could be enlargened and improved through innovation and scientific procedures, and how that would lead to productivity gains and to the production of more than enough food to feed everyone on earth (at least enough food in terms of quantities). The fact that nowadays not everybody is properly fed in the world, does not answer to a lack of food produced but to a wrong manner of distributing it.