Wages have grown faster. Key indicators of infrastructure such as telephones per person show a much higher level of development. These comparative data provide solid evidence that an enter- prise system works better than does a planned economy. For our purposes here, this powerful explanation of economic development cuts the ground from under population growth as a likely explana- tion. And under conditions of freedom, demographic growth poses less of a problem in the short run, and brings many more benefits in the long run, than under conditions of government planning of the economy.
More consumers mean less of the fixed available stock of goods to be divided among more people.
And a larger number of workers laboring with the same fixed current stock of capital implies that there will be less output per worker. But if the resources with which people work are not fixed over the period being analyzed, then the Malthusian logic of diminishing returns does not apply. And the plain fact is that, given some time to adjust to shortages, the resource base does not remain fixed. People create more resources of all kinds. When horse-powered transportation became a major problem, the railroad and the motor car were developed.