No single cause of overpopulation

Chris Urago, Las Vegas

Sunday, May 11, 2008 | 2:03 a.m.

Recent letters on overpopulation have tried to limit the cause to one determining factor. I would suggest there is not one single cause but several. Better minds than ours have pondered the question of free market versus environmental concerns.

In 1751 Benjamin Franklin wrote “Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind,” which was published anonymously in 1755. It influenced Adam Smith, David Hume, Lord Kames, Richard Price, Turgot and Thomas Malthus.

The work contains contradictory messages about population. Franklin blames many of the problems in Europe on overpopulation and asserts that as a species we have a capacity to reproduce far faster than our need for replacement. He also strongly felt that we could outgrow our ability to sustain ourselves.

At the same time he explicitly encouraged early marriage, large families and rapid population growth in the colonies. He did not seem to think a population doubling every 25 years would lead to trouble in the future. This situation has created multiple interpretations of the work, used by scholars to support positions both pro and con regarding high fertility.

Thus the audience had been prepared a little over 200 years ago when Malthus wrote a document entitled “An Essay on the Principle of Population,” which essentially stated that there is an imbalance between our ability to produce food and our ability to produce children. He said human beings are far better at making babies than they are at finding ways to feed them.

It was revolutionary in 1798, and we are still debating Malthus’ major issues: 1) putting a brake on economic optimism; 2) justifying wages, resulting in a minimum cost of subsistence of a wage earner, forming a standard; and 3) discouraging traditional forms of charity.

Further, developing social policy attempted to discourage the prevalent notion that fertility itself added to national wealth. Poor laws were questioned regarding limited labor and encouraging large families.

The growth of nations and their peoples, with related problems of food supply and socioeconomic disproportion, will continue to boggle the very best of minds.