Question

Explain which position you find more convincing....the demographic transition theory or Malthus's view

Answer 1

According to the demographic transition theory, the birth and death rates decline when an economy develops from a pre-industrial to an industrialized economy.

According to the Malthus's view, population grows exponentially whereas food supply grows in arithmetic progression. Therefore, according to Malthus, there will eventually be a food shortage and many will die due to a lack of food supply. Therefore, Malthus emphasized on controlling population growth.

I think the demographic transition theory is more convincing. The population of the world has grown around 5 times since 1900. However, there is still an adequate supply of food in the world. Malthus ignored technological growth. Growth in technology has resulted in high growth in food productivity. This is the reason the human civilization did not face the doom as predicted by Malthus.