In his 1798 Essay on the Principle of Population Reverend Thomas Malthus outlined his now famous argument that while population "increases in a geometrical ratio," the resources for survival, primarily food, "increases only in an arithmetical ratio." Consequently, unless "population checks" (war, famine, etc.) kept population growth down, he argued, the world would soon run out of food. Malthus, of course, was wrong; new agricultural techniques have continued to allow us to produce more food.

En prinsippið er augljóslega rétt þó við höfum fundið leiðir til að fá meiri mat alltaf hingað til.. ég get ekki einu sinni ímyndað mér mótrök gegn þessum einfalda punkt