"I think it will be found that experience, the true source and foundation of all knowledge, invariably confirms its truth." -Thomas Malthus
In his 1798 work, Essay on the Principle of Population, Malthus observed that plants and animals in nature tend to produce more offspring than can survive. He concluded that, if left unchecked, man could do the same thing. Malthus' view was that poverty and famine were natural outcomes of population growth that the food supply which was unable to keep up. Malthus observed the decline of living conditions in eighteenth and nineteenth, and he blamed it on three elements: excessive reproduction, inability of food supply to keep up with the population, and the irresponsibility of the lower classes. Malthus suggested the regulation of lower class family sizes, an idea very similar to the policy that China has implemented today.
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