1. THOMAS ROBERT MALTHUS Alex Lee Economics 217-50

2. WHO WAS HE?  Born in 1766 in the town of Wotton in the Surrey region of England  Received the finest education due to his well-off family  Attended Jesus College at Cambridge University to study mathematics and natural philosophy  Became an ordained minister at the age of 22

3. WHAT DID HE DO FOR ECONOMICS?  Published the Essay on Population in 1798  Served as a professor of history, politics, commerce, and finance at the New East India College and became one of the first academic economists  Believed that poverty and misery in society were inevitable leading to economics being known as “the dismal science”

4. WHAT ELSE DID HE DO FOR ECONOMICS?  Saw the population problem as one that could not be solved due to human sex drive and the inability to stop reproducing at such a rapid rate  Population increases geometrically while food supply increases arithmetically  Starvation seemed impossible to avoid, although preventative checks on the population do exist

5. WHAT DID HE DO FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SOCIOLOGY?  1620-1900 are known as the “exploitation years” in environmental sociology  During this time, Malthus used his theory on the population bomb to discuss the “tragedy of the commons”  The tragedy of the commons states acknowledges the finite amount of land available for public use

6. WHAT IS THE TRAGEDY OF THE COMMONS?  Public spaces become exhausted through constant usage by too many members of the population  An example of this in the present-day environment is construction of government-assisted housing in my own home town

7. HOW DOES THE TRAGEDY WORK ON A GLOBAL SCALE?  If Malthus was alive today, he would probably be disgusted with the amount of waste and the rapid expansion of the population, but he would not be surprised  Due to the ever-growing populations and environmental degradation in first world countries, the commons are quickly used past the point of recovery, and rich nations take business over seas to collect resources from third world countries

8. SO WHY SHOULD HE BE REMEMBERED?  He was one of the first economists in academia  His theory on population is still relevant today  His influence spanned multiple disciplines

9. ANY QUESTIONS?