By: ABBAS ALI
Initially, Mr. Malthus had expressed the above mentioned ideas about the human population. The scholar had proved the fact with experience, observation, and historical evidence that:
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- In every country, the population tends to increase at such a rate that the quantity of natural resources for the survival of life becomes insufficient.
- Significantly, only some nations were able to reduce the population growth.
- Suppose the population increases to such an extent that the quantity of natural resources, i.e., food, etc., for the survival of life, becomes insufficient. In that case, instead of reducing the activity, human potency acts more vigorously and increases the population.
- Suppose the idea of living with leisure cannot stop the growth of the population. In that case, there is no reason that the fear of poverty and misery, despite suffering from the actual disease of poverty, also cannot stop it.
- No nation in the world is free from the apprehensions of suffering that take birth with population growth.
After proving these critical issues, Mr. Malthus mentions the obstacles stopping population growth. Without these causes, there was no doubt that the world would have become such a spectacle of misery and pain that no kind heart could have borne to see it. Instead, despite the presence of these causes, a considerable number of children of Adam are reeling in poverty regularly due to the intensity of which they are compelled to commit such crimes, which are a reason for the disgrace and shame for humans and are sufficient to tarnish the clear and bright mirror of correct human nature. We know that poverty is the source of all the crimes. If we can cure the incurable disease, the world will present a spectacle of paradise. And theft, murder. Gambling and other crimes that take birth due to this terrifying suffering will disappear. However, according to the present circumstances, the only chance of getting freedom from the claws of this black ghost is that the human population must decrease so that the available economic resources may be sufficient.
There is no doubt that if new islands are discovered where humans can migrate and settle, and if we can compete with the effects of the law of diminishing returns, population growth will not interfere with the human comfort level. However, because land is scarce in quantity and the mentioned law somehow controls its production, the dreadful results of population growth may interfere with our leisure. Comfort may deprive us of the leisure that we enjoy in case of population reduction. Therefore, we must bring to action those causes of the decrease in the population that are in our control so that the action of these causes will combine with the natural causes and reduce the human population. The world will get freedom from the sufferings and pangs of poverty and present a fascinating spectacle. According to Malthus, there are two resources to stop human population growth:
- Natural or involuntary resources, e.g., pandemic, drought, war, etc.
- Voluntary, e.g., human abstinence from marrying and controlling one’s sexual desires and natural urges, and late marriages. If these resources are used to affect the population’s growth fully, the effect of natural causes, i.e., droughts and pandemics, will automatically decrease. Drought takes birth due to a vast number of food eaters, and the pandemic is caused by inadequate food for the poor, unclean houses, and clothes for people experiencing poverty.
During the initial stages of civilization, human needs were limited. However, with the development of human civilization, the circle of human needs also expanded. Where there was only a need for food, when it was fulfilled, the human need for decorating houses arose. Because every new desire demands that some other desires be suppressed to fulfil his modern desires, man limits his earlier desires. Even generally speaking, he judiciously changes his power of potency. Currently, most parents only marry their sons after completing their education. The education of a son is prioritized over his marriage; instead, at some times, the motivation behind the idea is that if the son gets married, then children will start giving birth, and the son will have to abandon his education, keeping in view the upbringing of his children. Postponement of marriage implies a decrease in the number of children, which was otherwise possible in the case of marriage.
Furthermore, with the development of civilization, man also desires different foods and a variety of comforts, which motivates him to labour, and it also affects his power of potency so tremendously that even the fear of poverty cannot affect him to that extent. Living a royal style is a man’s natural urge, and sometimes, this desire stops him from fulfilling the animal desires of his nature. According to the same theory, the landowner fears more children in certain countries where the land is distributed among small landholders for self-cultivation. They know their land will be distributed among more parts as the number of children increases. Moreover, if their children also start having children, more than the quantity of land will be needed for their subsistence.
However, we should remember that the desire to stop population growth acts more vigorously only when land cultivation has reached the diminishing returns stage. In other words, we man thinks that the economic goods will need to be more available. According to these rules, we can guess what the present situation of Hindustan demands. Economic goods are scarce in our country, and the population increases daily. Nature cures it with drought and pandemics.
However, we should also get free from the customary compulsions of child marriage and number of marriages. Let us use our scarce resources judiciously, concentrate on industry and trade, increase the rate of wages of the country, take the path of farsightedness, and ponder over the final destination of our nation so that our country remains safe from the dangerous results of poverty so that it can reach that higher stage of culture and civilization with which our real welfare is connected.
From these lines, you should not understand that we are prohibiting humankind from enjoying the taste of marriage in totality. Our only aim is that the least number of children should be born, and the desire to have a wife is a natural one, and to suppress it entirely is also against the health norms. Therefore, from an economic point of view, human welfare lies in that, as far as possible, one should avoid fulfilling his animal desires. One should have as few children as possible. This purpose can be achieved by marrying at a higher age or, in other words, by decreasing the birth rate and, in general, by curbing sexual desires.
Ilm-ul-Iqtisad
Part-5 Chapter-1
AABADI WAJIHI MAISHIYAT
Abbas42@rediffmail.com
