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In planet with finite resources, clearly there is a “population problem.” A large section of the environmentalist and ecologist movements and some ecological socialist believe this population problem was first analyzed incisively by Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus among the notable English classical political economists more than 200 years ago. Among the same milieu it is common to mock Karl Marx’s critique of Malthus’ theory. In what follows, I will argue that this common belief is false and it is at best based inadequate knowledge of either writers. In particular, I will focus on the claim of my ecological socialist fellow Saral Sarkar who believes “Malthus was right” and “Marx was wrong” on the population question. As some readers know, this writing is part of my discussion of Saral’s recent writings regarding causes of the Great Recession. In these (as well as earlier writings), Saral has displayed increasingly hostile to Marx. While critical appropriation of any thinker’s contributions is a welcome method of developing new ideas or extending earlier ones, hostility (being critical without due process) is an implement to them. Thus, it is alarming to me that Saral in his recent essay, Saral treats U.S. President Barack Obama and former Vice President Al Gore with more respect than he accords to Marx and in his letter he accuses Marx of being “bias” and “wrong” without any serious examination of the issues involved.
full: http://forhumanliberation.blogspot.com/2014/05/1417-on-population-question-malthus.html?spref=fb
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