Population and food supply - was Malthus correct?

Abstract

Some years back an American economist by the name of Brooks returned to the U.S. after a five-year stay in India. Soon after his return he was interviewed by a reporter who asked him “I would like a simple yes or no answer. Please don’t give me a long lecture. Is India going to find a way to provide for all of the millions of people who live there or is it doomed to perpetual poverty and famine?” The professor was unable to answer. Instead he set to work on a five-page article for the reporter’s newspaper that ended with the simple phrase “it depends.”

I’m afraid that this is the way social scientists are. The world keeps asking for yes and no answers but the professors keep on answering “it depends”. So if I don’t give any simple “yes” or “no” answers this afternoon, you may be little dissatisfied but at least you can have the comfort of knowing that others, too, have felt a similar dissatisfaction.

Text of a lecture given on February 21, 1979 at CPU. Dr. Costello is the Senior Fulbright Lecturer in Sociology for the Philippines, 1978-1979.