Thomas Malthus
Thomas Malthus was an English clergyman and economist (1766–1834) best known for arguing that population growth tends to outstrip food supply, leading inevitably to famine, disease, or war.
His name survives in Malthusian, describing grim predictions about overpopulation and resource scarcity: Malthusian fears about feeding nine billion people.
Increase by fixed proportion
- carrying capacityPopulation an environment sustains
- overpopulationUnsustainable density of inhabitants
- subsistenceMinimal means of living
- catastropheDevastating, large-scale misfortune
prognostication · exponential growth · scarcity · sustainability · natural limits · resource depletion · diminishing returns
Extreme nutritional deprivation
- scarcityInsufficiency of something needed
- hungerNeed for nourishment
- malnutritionDisease from dietary inadequacy
- crop failureWhen fields yield nothing
drought · destitution · suffering · death toll · vice · misery · pestilence · war
Original free-market doctrine
- political economyPolicy-market interaction analysis
- RicardoSpanish male given name
- Adam SmithClassical economics founder
- John Stuart MillBritish empiricist and reformer
East India Company · laissez-faire · wages · labor · rent · scarcity · resources · wealth distribution
Nickname for economics
- CarlyleScottish Victorian essayist
- DarwinBritish naturalist, species theorist
- natural selectionDifferential reproductive success
- influencePower to affect others
controversy · criticism · pessimism · doomsayer · sustainability · environmental movement · Godwin · utopianism
Statistical study of populations
- birthrateNewborns per capita measure
- mortalityState of eventual death
- fertilityCapacity for reproduction
- family planningControlling fertility deliberately
contraception · census · growth rate · overcrowding · density · migration · urbanization · fecundity
geometric growth
Increase by fixed proportion
- carrying capacityPopulation an environment sustains
- overpopulationUnsustainable density of inhabitants
- subsistenceMinimal means of living
catastrophe · prognostication · exponential growth · scarcity · sustainability · natural limits · resource depletion · diminishing returns
starvation
Extreme nutritional deprivation
- scarcityInsufficiency of something needed
- hungerNeed for nourishment
- malnutritionDisease from dietary inadequacy
crop failure · drought · destitution · suffering · death toll · vice · misery · pestilence · war · Ireland
classical economics
Original free-market doctrine
- political economyPolicy-market interaction analysis
- RicardoSpanish male given name
- Adam SmithClassical economics founder
John Stuart Mill · East India Company · laissez-faire · wages · labor · rent · scarcity · resources · wealth distribution · subsistence wage
dismal science
Nickname for economics
- CarlyleScottish Victorian essayist
- DarwinBritish naturalist, species theorist
- natural selectionDifferential reproductive success
influence · controversy · criticism · pessimism · doomsayer · sustainability · environmental movement · Godwin · utopianism
demography
Statistical study of populations
- birthrateNewborns per capita measure
- mortalityState of eventual death
- fertilityCapacity for reproduction
family planning · contraception · census · growth rate · overcrowding · density · migration · urbanization · fecundity · reproduction
Thomas MalthusPaul Ehrlich