Malthus, Darwin, and the Descent of Economics

摘要

Confusion about overpopulation stems from the writings of Thomas Malthus in 1798. It was compounded by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, both of whom made the Malthusian struggle for existence the basis of natural selection in the evolutionary process. Malthus argued, without evidence, that human population growth will continue unchecked until regulated by external factors such as hunger and disease. Darwin and Wallace cemented that idea into evolutionary theory. Recent evolutionary biologists have focused on gene frequency as a way to compare the reproductive success of one individual against another within the same species. However, among humans, the true basis of reproductive success is grounded in control of the resources necessary for survival. Humans sometimes adapt to environmental stress by having more children, not fewer, which means that poverty can cause population growth, not the reverse. Recognizing this simple relationship would have helped Darwin resolve a dilemma at the heart of his theory: his expectation that the most successful members of our species would have the most children, an idea contradicted by his observation of large, poor families among the Irish. The evolutionary puzzle can be solved by observing that providing equal access to land enables humans to limit their own fertility. The problem of equal access can be addressed by implementing Henry George's idea of taxing the value of land, thereby preventing hoarding and gross inequality of wealth.