So, was the guy with pink hair right?

Who would have thought that there was a famous Classical Economist who was a “fashionista,” Anglican parson who powdered his hair pink instead of white?! An economist famous for being labeled as the “Prophet of Doom.” His character is contrary to his personality because he wrote to counter those utopians of his time who were captivated with exceedingly optimistic visions of the perfectability of man. A young man, born from a prosperous country gentleman with eight siblings. A young man, who, despite his hereditary speech defect, did not take this as an obstacle in the pursuance of his achievements. That man my dears, is Thomas Robert Malthus.

Malthus’ is reputed for his contributions on the nature and causes of poverty; on matters concerning population growth, “moral restraint”, poverty and the necessary evils that kept the population down.

Studying this famous economist here are some intriguing thoughts that I have learned and pondered on throughout:

Food and Sex

Wow, these contrasting ideas for which I cannot decipher the relationship. My initial thought was, that “maybe both are satisfying.” I live to eat and eat to live. Sex, is the very reason of my existence and existence is inevitable. I also thought that, “both are a necessity to man’s survival.” How do you think will I survive without food and sex on my life’s menu? But then, my eyes rolled up and saw the word ‘population growth’ and I said to myself, “Okay, now I can relate it with economics. Population growth will continue to increase for sex is a ‘hunger’ which man cannot control. Sex is like the sweetest drug for man’s craving. Food on the other hand will have to keep up with the fast increase in population to feed us all. The more food there is, the more sex there will be. Funny how that can be? Come to think of it’s part of man’s rational thinking. “Moral restraint” and the necessary evils, vice and misery, are what Malthus believed that will keep the population from running up against man. These will prolong the population from rising exponentially, but still, it will not stop the population from rising.

Agricultural vs. Industrial Revolution

This is easy, Agricultural Revolution is the period when people were still using the traditional ways of planting, harvesting, etc. etc. and etc., while the Industrial Revolution is the period when people started using machines that would make production easier and faster giving you more time to rest. But, then again, my eyes rolled up and saw population growth. Do they relate aside from the obvious that industrial revolution helps in keeping up with growth? There’s still one idea there. In the Philippine concept, population growth will take away full industrialization since there are further newborns. There is more need for a child’s necessities like basic learning and clothing and some families may not be able to provide these necessities for lack money. Population growth will lessen the budget for industrial revolution and even economic expansion in the long run because a large portion of budget is used to finance underprivileged families.

With population growth, there will be a shortage. Thus industrial revolution helps faster and easier manufacture and production of goods. This also leads to quick and speedy consumption of said goods. But think about this, “Is there really a shortage?” as Malthus perceives, or “Will too much production lead to massive surplus in the end?”