Malthus and Owen 213consequences will teach the lessons of moral restraint with
untempered justice. The rise and fall of population in relation to
food supply will always require checks, whether positive or
preventative. But by leaving the population the alternative of
choosing moral restraint or the suffering that will result—nature
rules not man made laws. He maintains that if we let nature
follow its course, and men do what is morally correct, all will be
well (for Malthus, as well as can be expected). If men choose not
to be moral, the natural and logical consequences will restrain
men where they have not the will to do so.
It is interesting that Thomas Malthus, with this concept of
laissez-faire economics, concludes darkly that the future is
bleak. Adam Smith some years earlier, concluded that with this
concept of laissez-faire economics the future is bright. Historical
examples such as India and parts of Africa tend to validate the
Malthusian theory. Historical examples of western Europe and
the United States tend to validate Smith’s theory. Does the
answer lie in the value of industry, technology and production?
Or despite the obvious benefits we have reaped in the progress
of our ability to meet the needs of greatly increased numbers of
people ... is the clock ticking down?
Robert Owen (1771-1858)
Robert Owen was bom in Newton, Wales, in 1771. He was the
sixth of seven children. His father was an ironmonger, and his
early youth was spent in the relative isolation of a small market
town. He was however, a precocious child, who at the age of
seven had learned the body of knowledge required of students at
his local school. So, for over a year he held the post of assistant
school master, a position he retired from at the ripe old age of
nine. He left home when he was ten years old to take a job in
Stamford, England as a draper.
His career in the textile industry flourished. He progressed
rapidly in the drapery business in London, left for Manchester at
age fourteen, and worked in the mills there. Manchester was the
center of the English Industrial Revolution and he was exposed
to the workings of the cotton mills, and the factory system. By
the time he was twenty, he was a master cotton spinner and was