Malthus, population growth and the resource base

[@mojophe1617]

No food shortage in Ireland. During the height of the Great Hunger 90 million tons of food was exported from Ireland to England. There was enough food to feed a population of 19 million people in Ireland. The food was witheld from the Irish causing forced starvation. When you try to explain things it's important to research deeply.

[@pcka12]

Margaret Phelan this is also the first example of attempts at ‘relief’ when supply of ‘Indian corn’ set up by ‘Tories’ was prevented by incoming ‘Whig’ (now ‘Liberal’) government- cruel - !

[@gigisanchezgata4454]

Very good explanation of Malthus' theory.

[@davepx1]

Population growth did not "drive people to the margins of subsistence", inequality did. Malthus was wrong. Global food supply has consistently outstripped population growth: how we distribute the goods is another matter. Claiming a 21st-century slowing of crop yield growth as support for Malthus is spurious, as population growth is slowing too, and farmers don't plant to beat records, they plant to sell to people - and they plant more to sell to more people. Malthus was an intelligent man nonetheless. Right now as he saw a world with most of the people it'll ever have and more than enough to go round but without the political will or moral quality to share it, shovelling more than a third of its grain into livestock for cheap meat while millions go without basic foodstuffs, he'd be saying, "Oops".

[@artjomwilhelm4026]

i have read the first of his books. he mentions inequality. but imagine we would give everyone the same share of food. in africa the population will start to grow like crazy until not enough food is left anymore. if we dont control the water and food supply and let the population expand like hell it will be a disaster. also global food supply has outstripped population growth. yes. of course it does. for the exact reason that we want more subsistence. the cause is not the effect. no one would produce food for less profit.

[@prisoneroftech2237]

A small group of people need to stop hoarding and monopolizing the earth's resources. Currently the millions that are dying of lack of basic nutrition and water - can be easily solved if the resources are distributed properly.

[@JanOosthoek]

I have created a new short video that explores the ideas of Thomas Malthus (1766-1834) and his ideas about the growth of the human population. The video investigates the background of Malthus' ideas, the mathematical basis of it and how it influenced the debate surrounding population growth in the latter half of 20th century. The video concludes with a brief discussion asking whether Malthus' predictions have come true or not in the light of the high world food prices in the first decade of the 21st century. I guess that this video would be useful for students to teach them about Malthus. Feel free to use it in the classroom and for assignments!

[@standalby6949]

Here in Britain we've seen the rise of cheap supermarkets like ALDI , LIDIL & the like , food prices have come down along with the population rate , we don't know what is waiting for us around the corner

[@cybermacaque6622]

thank you very much for this video sir, definitely helpful when studying economics ^^ Hope you will do some other ones !

[@avelasphesihle2172]

thanx this is really helpful

[@bunney3272]

Malthus was right. We did not listen to him, and just look at the state of our planet!