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Thomas Malthus believed that “population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio,” and that “subsistence increases only in an arithmetical ratio.” What he is saying is that eventually, the population exceeds the amount of food that is available for consumption; therefore, starvation occurs among the poor, and many die.

Malthus states that by nature, we require food. That means that there must be a “strong and constantly operating check on population from the difficulty of subsistence.” This check, according to him, is the starvation of the poor. Since there is less food, less people can eat the same amount of food to survive. “The poor consequently must live much worse, and many of them be reduced to severe distress. The number of labourers also being above the proportion of the work in the market, the price of labour must tend toward a decrease; while the price of provisions would at the same time tend to rise. The labourer therefore must work harder to earn the same as he did before.”

He then finally states that population growth “cannot be checked, without producing misery or vice,” and implies that even though the government may try to implement welfare programs to benefit the poor, in the end, the natural law will win, and the ones who cannot afford food will die. According to him, it is best to let nature run its course, so that most of the population can be happy.