Marxist Perspective on Population

7/27/2019 Marxist Perspective on Population

1/14

Advocates-Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels


2/14

Historical Background Both teenagers in Germany when Malthus died in

England in 1834.

They went to England-Malthus already ideas werepolitical influencial in Germany.

German states and Austria experiencing a rapidgrowth in the number of poor people.

Policy in placed legislation against marriagesunless applicant could guarantee that his family

would not be on welfare.


3/14

continue People started to have children out of wedlock and

welfare rolls grew

Marxist perspective on population arose in reaction toMalthus.


4/14

Consequences of Population Growth Marx and Engels disagree with Malthus that resources

could not grow as rapidly as population.

They argued that there is no reason to suspect thatscience and technology could not increase the

availability of food and other goods as quickly aspopulation grows.


5/14

Engels He argued that whatever pop. Pressure existed in

society was really pressure against the means of

employment rather than against the means ofsubsistence (Meek, 1971)

They rejected the view that poverty can be blamedon the poor

They claimed that poverty is a result of a poorlyorganized society-eg. capitalist society.


6/14

Consequences continue Marx and Engels argued that a normal consequence of

population growth should be a significant increase inproduction.

Engels believed that a well-ordered society, if therewere more people, there ought to be more wealth, notmore poverty,(1953).

They did not believe that poverty was the end result of

pop. growth.


7/14

Conseq. Engels (England) more people = meant more

wealth for the capitalists rather than for the

workers.Why? The capitalists profit from the workers

wages.

Marx explained that this occur by stripping theworkers of their tools and charging the workers forbeing able to come to the factory to work.


8/14

Conseq. Marx argued that capitalism worked by using the

labour of the working classes to earn profits to buymachines that wld. replace the labourers-lead to

unemployment and poverty. The poor were not poor because they overran the food

supply-capitalists had taken part of their wages, takentheir jobs and replaced with machines.


9/14

Conseq. Malthus consequences of population growth were the

consequences of a capitalist society.

Overpopulation in a capitalist society is a result of thecapitalists desire for an industrial reserve army.

Labour reserves keep wages low though competition

for jobs.


10/14

Marx believed that the growing pop= seeds ofdestruction for capitalism unemployment-disaffection and revolution.


11/14

Marxs personal life Marx like Malthus practiced what he preached.

He married young, fathered 8 children and lives onintimate terms with poverty for much of his life.

Primarily concerned with England in 19th C


12/14

Critique of Marx Marxian thought on pop. Attribute to Lenin.

Marx offer no guidelines for the transition period.

Marx implied that the socialist law of pop. Shld be theanti-thesis of capitalist law.

Soviet socialism was unable to alleviate one of theworst evils that Marx attributed to capitalism.


13/14

Chinas reaction to population

growth Higher death rates among people in the working

class than those in the higher classes,(Brackett,

1967). In china emperical reality of having to deal with

the worlds largest national population has led to aradical departure from Marxian idealogy.

1953-chinese govt relaxed regulations cocerningcontraception and abortion

One child policy


14/14

Critique of Marx continue Marx denied pop problems

China had to rejected its Marxist-Leninist roots andembrace a very coercive govt programs.

This was launched to reduce fertility throughrestraints on marriage, contraception and abortion.

Marxism is being revised in light of new scientificevidence on how people behave.

Documents

Marxist Perspective on Population