Describe the neo malthus theory and its applicabilities in developing countries.?

Question

Describe the neo malthus theory and its applicabilities in developing countries.?

Answer 1

A big proponent of this theory is Herman Daly. The idea is the same as Thomas' original - population will increase to the point at which the resources can sustain the population of an environment.  Daly says that we should make sure that we deplete non-renewable resources only at a rate at which we can create renewable ones.  This is based on two assumptions: 1) Resources are indeed finite. 2)  technology may have overcome diminishing returns in the past but is unable to exceed the depletion through increases in efficiency and new resource procurement.

  I think these believers would either look at the outdated macro view that the earth can't sustain the population growth of these developing regions. This is questionable in that population growth rates are decreasing and look like they will invert given dropping fertility rates in nearly every nation (refer to Phillip Longman, "the Empty Cradle").  

If they are looking at the developing country as an isolated environment with limits on its ability to provide resources, they may suggest that populations will stop growing thanks to famine and disease. This also is unrealistic in that there are really only a handful of economically isolated nations and even they have trading partners - North Korea, Cuba, Myanmar.  They might describe the disaster in Myanmar as a Malthusian issue, but this is really dissatisfying in that there are hundreds of nations without such problems that have no such issues.

My apologies but I can't help but editorialize about neo-Malthusians.  A large number of economists don't buy into this grim, and sometimes hysteric driven movement given that long term trends don't support their view. For example, pricing in inflation adjusted dollars shows that commodities are becoming cheaper given that they are extracted, deployed and used with cheaper substitutes increasingly over time. Even oil, historically, is on a cheapening trend in real dollars. Price spikes like what we are seeing now are driven as much of a weak dollar as the fact that oil is inelastic - it takes a while for supply and demand to adjust.