Just looked up “Malthusianism” -
at its base, this belief is actually coming true - overpopulation amongst the DEPENDENT POOR.
And there’s a political party that stakes its very existence on the growth of this segment of society.
Malthus said that increased population inevitably leads to shortages of food and starvation because certain natural resources (e.g. arable land) are finite and scarce and unreplaceable. The "environmental movement" adopts this "scarcity leads to disaster" mentality to all resources, claiming we are necessarily running out of land, soil, water, energy resources, "biodiversity", clean air, everything. Alex Cockburn, Julian Simon, and myself believe this is bunk and that man's intelligence and creativity can overcome any and all scarcity through increased end-use efficiency and substitution. The difference among us is that Julian Simon and I believe that it is through individual freedom and free enterprise that scarcities will be overcome and Cockburn foolishly and stubbornly clings to vague imaginings of enlightened collectivism to get the job done.