He became a prominent public figure and was appointed to several academic positions, including a professorship of history and political economy at the East India Company College in Hertfordshire.

His later writings reflect his deepening engagement with the economic debates of his time and his evolving views on the relationship between population, resources, and economic growth.

One of Malthus’s most important later works was “An Inquiry into the Nature and Progress of Rent” (1815), in which he developed the concept of economic rent.

His theory has been criticized for its deterministic and pessimistic outlook, as well as for its failure to account for the potential of technological innovation to overcome resource constraints. On the one hand, it provided a stark and sobering counterpoint to the optimism of the Enlightenment, challenging the idea that human society could achieve perfect equality and harmony.

This position allowed Malthus to continue his research and writing while also teaching and influencing a new generation of students.

The publication of “An Essay on the Principle of Population” was thus a defining moment in Malthus’s career. His concern was that if savings outpaced investment, it could result in insufficient demand, leading to economic downturns.

Malthus also contributed to debates on the Corn Laws, which were tariffs on imported grain designed to protect British agriculture.

While technological advances in agriculture, such as genetically modified crops and precision farming, have helped to feed a growing global population, the specter of Malthusian scarcity still looms in areas vulnerable to environmental changes and political instability.

Critics of modern Malthusianism argue that it remains overly pessimistic and fails to fully account for the human capacity for innovation and adaptation.

The most fertile and well-located land would generate higher rents, as it could produce more output with the same amount of labor and capital. [3rd ed., 1806; 4th ed., 1807; 5th ed. However, the pivotal moment in his education came when he attended Jesus College, Cambridge, in 1784.

Neo-Malthusianism, a modern reinterpretation of Malthusian ideas, emphasizes the potential for environmental degradation, resource depletion, and social instability due to unchecked population growth. At the same time, the writings of philosophers like William Godwin and the Marquis de Condorcet, who argued for the perfectibility of human society, challenged Malthus to think critically about the limits of human progress.

It was in response to these utopian ideas that Malthus began to formulate his own theory of population.

He theorized that without checks such as famine, disease, and war, population growth would outstrip resources, resulting in societal collapse. Malthus concluded that unless family size was regulated, man's misery of famine would become globally epidemic and eventually consume Man. Malthus' view that poverty and famine were natural outcomes of population growth and food supply was not popular among social reformers who believed that with proper social structures, all ills of man could be eradicated.

He blamed this decline on three elements: The overproduction of young; the inability of resources to keep up with the rising human population; and the irresponsibility of the lower classes.