BigBallinStalin wrote:Yeah, they're called Malthusians.
Malthus believed that population would grow than fall because people would reach the diminishing returns of food production (i.e. as population grew, farm land would have to increase, but that additional farm land is less efficient, so there would be less food, which in turn would lead to starvation, etc.).
Of course, he was wrong because (a) technology, (b) the price mechanism (and profit and loss incentives), and (c) people aren't that stupid (they respond to incentives--e.g. "gee, if we have too many kids, we won't be able to feed them all"). (Recall that tribe in Northern Canada which basically kills off their elderly and females in the expectation of harsher times).
As a side note, most people perpetuate this myth because they're uninformed, so it's our duty to update them.
The professor I listened to basically said there could be another Malthusian event, but the reason we haven't had one is because technology which is because capitalism.
