The Ageing Population By Thomas Malthus And Alfred Marshall

One of the main concerns currently within Australia is the overspending by the government. Given the expenditure from the previous Australia’s government, the current government has been under constant pressure by its nation, hence must view policies to reduce the nation’s structural budget deficit due to ageing population. The government must act upon decision and policies to resolve the issue of the increasing ageing population in order to reduce the budget deficit. Even though it is a current issue, through comparing and contrasting the differing views of both Thomas Malthus and Alfred Marshall, we can see how economics has developed to solve the issues. The ageing population is the situation where the median age of the population is

This was related to him as his hometown, Surrey, saw significant increases in population resulting in an increased concern of the future consequences in the society. He argued that natural rate of human reproduction would increase the population’s rates in a geometric progression, which would overtake the arithmetical rate of natural resources in food supplies and production and there result will detriment the living standard of society (Heilbroner R 1953). He identified that there were “two general kinds of checks that limited population growth,” (Victorianweb, 1996) to prevent and slow down the overpopulating of humans to the point of starvation; positive checks and preventive checks. Positive checks included the increase of death rates through starvation and war whereas preventive checks included the decrease in birth rates through delayed

In his “An Essay on the Principle of Population” (1798), it is illustrated that land space is becoming scarce and there is a dramatic decrease in the limited resources which could potentially damage the living standards. As Malthus prioritised long-term stability over short-term expediency, the issues of dwindling resources would become an issue for economic growth and ultimately the deficit from the ageing population requirements. Malthus argues that a rapid expansion of population would exceed the resources available in terms of food supplies/production in which will affect the living standards of society. (Victorianweb, 1996) “Unlike population, land does not breed.” (Heilbroner R, 1953) Therefore, in Malthus’ view if Australia’s living standards and supplies decrease the country’s economic growth will fall resulting in the structural budget deficit to worsen. On the other hand, Marshall recognised that a country’s population could be too large or to small, but he made no use of an optimum. He acknowledged that the wealth per head would grow faster if the population rate grew at a slower rate, hence would disagree with the increased immigration. He would also disagree with the tax increases as he supported the increase in trade evident in his text “Industry and Trade” (1919), even though he disregarded the idea of comparative advantage. He stated that the “percentage of the