Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is an unlikely disciple of the 19th-century economist Thomas Robert Malthus, the cravat-sporting, severely Anglican intellectual who wrote a famous treatise on population growth in 1798 – not long after hordes from England’s over-stuffed prison population were transported to NSW as an overflow mechanism. Malthus believed that while technological progress might increase a society’s resources, thereby improving the standard of living, this would only lead to more population growth, which would cycle people back into lower living standards. Malthus also believed that overpopulation invited the forces of “natural” population-slashers such as famine and pestilence.
Birth rates are declining. Credit: iStock Overpopulate and perish: they don’t call economics the dismal science for nothing. In the centuries since, Malthusianism has gone in and out of fashion, and has been used as an intellectual justification for nefarious purposes such as eugenics policies, and for more idealistic ones, such as environmentalism.
But Mathusianism maintains its relevance – we are having a variation of the debate in our politics now. Australia has a housing crisis so deep we must acknowledge we have failed the most basic test of progress; that is, we will not leave future generations better off than their predecessors. A household with two median incomes can no longer afford a median-priced house in most Australian cities .
For part-time workers and single-i.