Question

After reading Thomas Malthus' population theory and the ideas of Julian Simon, with which do you agree? Give at least one example supporting your opinion.

Answer 1

I agree with Julian Simon Ideas. Julian Simon ideas led to a cornucopian theory which states that with increasing population, technology would grow and lead to new resources.

Thomas Malthus, on the other hand, stated that growing population would lead to scarce resources which would not be able to sustain that population.

Let's take an example of the United States of America. After world war 2 the baby boomers came into existence. This was the time period when the birth rate was very high, the population was increasing and as per the Malthusian theories, the resources would have gone extinct. But that didn't happen, instead, new technology and research and development came in. New inventions like internet, computers enabled the nations to become more efficient and increase production manifolds. Globalisation was boosted, oil market came into existence and all these new technologies changed the way people live.

New technology just changed the way we experience the world.