Malthus, Thomas

Cultural  

1. A British economist of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, especially concerned with overpopulation.

---

Discover More

Malthusian theories hold that populations will always increase faster than food supplies and that, therefore, hunger will always exist among the poorest populations (see Malthusianism).

Malthus's pessimistic views, along with those of David Ricardo, earned economics the reputation of being the “dismal science.”

Example Sentences

Bailey, likewise, contrasts sharply with past conservative ideas of Malthus, Thomas Jefferson, and other anti-modernists.

From Slate

Malthus, Thomas R., death of, 339; "Essay on Population," 43.

From Project Gutenberg