In Shah's view, Malthus mistakenly assumed a non-existent trade-off between children and other parental consumption; this would only make sense if children were viewed as a vehicle for "hereditary immortality" and consumer goods. Secondly, Malthus believed that an increase in population leads to greater competition for jobs which means lower wages, leading to an increase in the rent for land. Using English political economist David Ricardo as a rebuttal, Ricardo argued that the fall in wages resulting from a rise in population would lead to an increase in profits. After this, Shah describes Kenneth Boulding's Dismal and Utterly Dismal theorems to encapsulate a couple of Malthus' theories. Next, Shah argues that Malthus' assumption that food production arithmetically increases is wrong. Then, Shah presents evidence from the past two centuries, showing that increases in food production depend on land availability and technical progress. Even more important, Malthus underestimated the agricultural potential of the New World. Lastly, the European demographic transition to prosperity lowered fertility rates.