The following very famous argument was fi rst published by Thomas Malthus in 1798 in his Essay on the Principle of Population (for further discussion of it see Fisher, 2004, chapter 3): Population,...

The following very famous argument was fi rst published by Thomas Malthus in 1798 in his Essay on the Principle of Population (for further discussion of it see Fisher, 2004, chapter 3): Population, when unchecked, increases in geometrical ratio. Subsistence increases only in arithmetical ratio. A slight acquaintance with numbers will show the immensity of the fi rst power in comparison with the second. By that law of nature which makes food necessary to the life of man, the effects of these two unequal powers must be kept equal. This implies a strong and constantly operating check on population from the diffi culty of subsistence. This diffi culty must fall somewhere and must necessarily be severely felt by a large portion of mankind. . . . [This] appears, therefore, to be decisive against the possible existence of a society, all the members of which should live in ease, happiness, and comparative leisure, and feel no anxiety about providing the means of subsistence for themselves and their families.