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托马斯·马尔萨斯:人口论·摘录 73

托马斯·马尔萨斯《人口论》· An Essay on the Principle of Population · 投资

These facts seem to shew that population increases exactly in the proportion that the two great checks to it, misery and vice, are removed, and that there is not a truer criterion of the happiness and innocence of a people than the rapidity of their increase. The unwholesomeness of towns, to which some persons are necessarily driven from the nature of their trades, must be considered as a species of misery, and every the slightest check to marriage, from a prospect of the difficulty of maintaining a family, may be fairly classed under the same head. In short it is difficult to conceive any check to population which does not come under the description of some species of misery or vice.

出处: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4239
定位:Excerpt 73 · 核对日期:2026-10-19 · 核验:短摘录

白话

马尔萨斯认为,人口增长的速度正好等于苦难和罪恶这两大阻碍被移除的程度,所以他把增长快慢当作衡量民众幸福与无辜的最可靠标准。城镇里因职业所迫的不卫生、因养家困难而推迟结婚,他都归入“苦难”。换句话说,任何对人口的抑制,最终都逃不开苦难或罪恶。这提醒我们:不要只看人口数字,要追问增长背后是哪些苦难被减轻了,还是被掩盖了;政策若只催生而不改善养育条件,只是把苦难转嫁给家庭。

上下文

马尔萨斯在《人口论》中提出“苦难与罪恶”是抑制人口的两大积极阻碍。

今日一问

你身边有哪些“抑制生育”的因素,其实是苦难而非自由选择?

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