Shah & Malthus

Malthus argued that human population increases exponentially, while food production grows only linearly, thereby outstripping necessary resources and leading to the decimation of society. Although this first seems logical, critics have noticed that critical assumptions made by Malthus only weaken his argument. Shah points out that the positive correlation between economic status and population size is not always true. In other words, you cannot reason that when people become richer, they inevitably will have more children. Also, Shah explains that Malthus fails to recognize the role technology plays in food production. While Malthus assumes that food production will lag behind the increase in population size, he fails to consider future land availability and technical progress. Although Shah focuses on making known Malthus’ faulty assumptions, he does not outright deny the possibility of a Malthusian population crisis.