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Thomas Malthus And EP-Thompson's Economic System

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“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well”(Virginia Woolfe). People in modern times often think of food as an everyday chore in terms of taking the time out of their busy lives to prepare the meal and eat. Even the homeless in modern times are thought of as not struggling as much due to there being able to obtain food through local food banks around the city and the welfare system. However, in the 18th and 19th century food was not seen as a basic necessity to the people and often due to imperialism and industrialization their ‘basic need’ was not met. The ideas of political and moral economy represented by Thomas Malthus and EP Thompson propose two different economic systems in which the goal is to decrease …show more content…

The “poor laws established workhouses and mandated imprisonment those who did not comply.” These laws established a way for people to earn money and gain their basic necessities by working, the harsh stipulations that came with taking this aid was supposed to dissuade those that did not truly need the aid and were just attempting to take advantage of the system. However, even these harsh laws were argued against by proposing “public assistance is too expensive and might encourage recipients to become dependent on charity.” Since the political economy is about individual choice Malthus inspired many to believe that it was the individual’s choice they were poor and hungry. It did not help that he stated that the lower class were not component about handling the money they received, “when they have a opportunity of savings they seldom exercise it, all that is beyond their present necessities goes, generally speaking, to the ale house.”(Malthus Chapter V, paragraph 13, lines 8-13). Thomas Malthus put the thought into everybody’s mind that the poor were really not able to handle money and that giving public aid to the poor was wrong since it was going to be taken advantaged of. His ideas instigated the wariness around foundation of the welfare system in the US. However, he can not be fully responsible due to it being other people enacting these harsh benefits and reinforcing this ideology. Even today there are disputes over the policies that include food stamps and cash aid from the government. People still today have a hard time giving money from their own paychecks to give to the government to aid others in need. It is hard to give away part of something you earned to help others, humans inherently want stability and the way to that stability is to have

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