Now that the world has survived the Y2K bug, doomsayers will be casting about for another looming catastrophe to scare us with. This idea, which has been around for 200 years or so, has survived despite the many wrong predictions it has generated. Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio.
Subsistence increases only in an arithmetical ratio.
Without deliberate population control, Malthus argued, there would never be enough food for everyone. Since then, assorted critics of capitalism have embellished Malthus's bleak scenario. If the neo-Malthusians are embarrassed by such blunders, they're not letting on. For one thing, production has more than kept up with population growth. Likewise, the neo-Malthusians are wrong to think that economic growth inevitably leads to environmental degradation.