投资 · 西方古典
托马斯·马尔萨斯:人口论·摘录 81
托马斯·马尔萨斯《人口论》· An Essay on the Principle of Population · 投资
The happiness of a country does not depend, absolutely, upon its poverty or its riches, upon its youth or its age, upon its being thinly or fully inhabited, but upon the rapidity with which it is increasing, upon the degree in which the yearly increase of food approaches to the yearly increase of an unrestricted population. This approximation is always the nearest in new colonies, where the knowledge and industry of an old state operate on the fertile unappropriated land of a new one. In other cases, the youth or the age of a state is not in this respect of very great importance. It is probable that the food of Great Britain is divided in as great plenty to the inhabitants, at the present period, as it was two thousand, three thousand, or four thousand years ago. And there is reason to believe that the poor and thinly inhabited tracts of the Scotch Highlands are as much distressed by an overcharged population as the rich and populous province of Flanders.
出处:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4239
定位:Excerpt 81 · 核对日期:2026-10-19 · 核验:短摘录
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马尔萨斯认为,一国幸福不绝对取决于贫富、老少或人口疏密,而取决于增长的速度,即每年食物增长接近不受限制的人口增长的程度。新殖民地因旧国知识与新地沃土结合,这种接近度最高。其他情况下,国家老少并不太重要。英国现在的食物分配可能和几千年前一样充足;苏格兰高地虽穷,也可能因人口过多而困苦,和富庶的佛兰德斯一样。核心是:关键在食物与人口增长的相对速度,而非静态贫富。
上下文
马尔萨斯比较不同社会,强调动态比例而非静态财富决定幸福。
今日一问
衡量一个地方的生活压力,你更看静态贫富,还是看食物与人口的增长速度?
公版作品;原文逐字取自 Project Gutenberg,仅摘录段落并附全书链接。
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