THE EDITOR, Sir:

If we are to control crime and promote prosperity of the majority through employment and income, the control of population must always be at the forefront of economic and political thoughts and actions. Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834), English economist famous for his essays on population (1798 and 1803), was noted for his advo-cacy of population control as his answer to recurrent problems on the equal distribution of wealth as a means of relieving conditions among the lower classes. Malthus published in 1798 his famous essay on the Principle of Population in which he does little more than give clearer expression to an idea of Adam Smith (the 'pressure of population on the means of subsistence').

Clearer expression

Although his theory did little more than give clearer expression to an idea of Adam Smith (the pressure of population on the means of subsistence) and supported it with dubious statistics and still more doubtful arithmetic, in the light of modern monetary theory, however, his principles of political economy stand out as a work of remarkable insight which predicted many of the Keynesian principles and yet was largely neglected for over a century. (Boulding Economic Analysis on the topic - Literature of Economics.)

All the above economic jargon and a lot more on the subject are saying what the humblest among us know, only half a bammy (half moon) can serve the whole world and only Christ, as the Bible says, could use a few loaves and fish and feed thousands. We must control population and, by extension, reduce the underprivileged who have made us the alleged murder capital of the world.

In substance, relentlessly pursue alleviation of poverty through increase employment (and just wages in the mix).

I am, etc.,

OWEN S. CROSBIE

oss@cwjamaica.com

Mandeville