Louis Proyect wrote:
>
> Mark Jones' alleged raising of the overpopulation question leads us once
> again into a discussion of the Marxist critique of Malthus. I would refer
> PEN-L'ers to Michael Perelman's "Marx's Crises Theory: Scarcity, Labor and
> Finance", specifically chapter two on "Marx, Malthus, and the Concept of
> Natural Resource Scarcity". It is one of the best things I have ever read
> on the subject.
A useful resource (no pun) is the collection edited by Ronald Meek *MArx
and
Engels on the Population Bomb* It includes a fine review essay by Meek
himself who argues that Keynes was Malthus in modern garb. Marx and
Engels both pointed some of their most fiery polemics at Malthus.
Malthus was obviously wrong, birth rates decline when absolute poverty
is alleviated and food production increased. As Marx argues in "Malthus
as Apologist" in volii of TSV, Malthus' MO was in defending
the interests of the landed aristocracy. "not a man of science but a
bought advocate, a pleader on behalf of their enemies, a shameless
sycophant of the ruling classes"The same thing carries on
today, with the landed aristocracy being the most forceful advocates of
Malthusianism and the Malthusianism of the mainstream environmental
movement (Sierra Club etc.) as well as being the main financial backers
of
said movement.
Sam Pawlett
