Progress and Poverty · Concept
Critique of Malthusian Theory
Rejects the idea that population growth causes poverty, arguing through evidence and logic that poverty stems from social maladjustments, not natural scarcity or overpopulation.
Rejects the idea that population growth causes poverty, arguing through evidence and logic that poverty stems from social maladjustments, not natural scarcity or overpopulation.
The chapter systematically refutes the idea that population growth inevitably leads to poverty.
The chapter critiques the Malthusian doctrine, exposing its logical fallacies and its role in justifying inequality.
The chapter systematically dismantles the Malthusian assumption that population tends to increase faster than subsistence, using logical and empirical counterexamples.
The chapter systematically dismantles the Malthusian analogy between human and non-human reproduction, arguing that human increase enhances rather than strains subsistence.
Characters
Chapters
- Book II: Population and Subsistence
- I: The Malthusian Theory, Its Genesis and Support
- II: Inferences from Facts
- III: Inferences from Analogy
- IV: Disproof of the Malthusian Theory
- II: The Effect of Increase of Population Upon the Distribution of Wealth
- III: The Effect of Improvements in the Arts Upon the Distribution of Wealth
- Book X: The Law of Human Progress