Stand down, Rev. Malthus
Nikki Haley has taken up your tattered flag
The tired trope that poor people are lazy (and oversexed) has been around forever, but it was codified in a serious way by the Rev. Thomas Walter Malthus, an influential 18th-century economist and member of the British clergy who had some ridiculous ideas about people who live in poverty that, for all those idea’s hatefulness, wouldn’t raise an eyebrow in certain circles today.
In short, according to Rev. Malthus, poor people
Had too many children
Were lazy
Relied on aid too much (so Malthus suggested aid be cut off)
Could be culled — if cutting off aid didn’t work — by God’s own hand (famine and war)
He was wrong then, and he’s wrong, now. Are there lazy people who are also poor? Yes. Are all poor people lazy? No, and yet Malthus’ notions have been the launchpad for generations of bad public policy. He remains influential in a way that’s stunning, considering his appalling lack of scientific research, as this 2016 Scientific American article says:
For example, the English Poor Law implemented by Queen Elizabeth I in 1601 to provide food to the poor was severely curtailed by the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, based on Malthusian reasoning that helping the poor only encourages them to have more children and thereby exacerbate poverty. The British government had a similar Malthusian attitude during the Irish potato famine of the 1840s
The Malthusian foundational lie, most recently repeated by Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley (see above), has done enormous damage — and continues to do so every time a politician like Nikki repeats it. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: This is intellectual laziness at its worst.
To learn more about how this hateful notion has spread, wade through the cuteness of this short video:
Thanks for this - your mention of the British induced genocide of the Irish strikes home for me as a 2nd generation Irish/American. My great grandfather (Mom's side) came to Hartford to save his family as did my grandfather (Dad's side). While they escaped likely chances of death they arrived in Waspy Hartford where the Irish were denigrated and worse. In the late 60's RFK traveled to Appalachia after which he had an Epiphany! His up close and personal witnessing the abject poverty affected him deeply. In Hartford, the capitol city to one of the wealthiest states in the USA poverty abounds, yet little has been done to change the paradigm. The ignorance to this social cancer is a cause for so many of our problems too numerous to mention in my rambling reply. Thanks again Susan for drawing attention to politicians like Haley who continue to put division over unity and healing!
Great stuff Susan, thanks for this! About 30 years ago I spent one Saturday per month helping highly disadvantaged people in South Philadelphia fix up their houses. Until then I'd never been around truly impoverished people, never been inside their houses, never walked in their neighborhoods. The experience profoundly changed my worldview. Poor people are exactly the same as the more well off except that they don't have as much money, as much opportunity, as much education or as much safety. They are not less deserving. They are not lazier. They are for sure not less strong or less kind. Having seen their circumstances up close I knew then and know now that had I been born in those same neighborhoods with a different skin color I'd absolutely still be there myself. Only very, very exceptional people can escape circumstances like that and I am not one of them.