This book explains it extremely well and backs it up with data in excruciating detail (which you can read or skip if you're convinced early on).
People think that Malthus predicted exponential population growth, but his actual observation was exactly what the above comment described. Growth in productivity would lead to growth in population until wealth per capita reached the same point it was at before. No improvement in productivity would ever actually improve the human condition, just increase its size. Malthus was absolutely right at the time he made this observation of his so called "Malthusian trap".
The observation you make about the modern world and lower birth rates started very abruptly not long after Malthus published his findings. The industrial revolution literally invalidated what had been true for all of human civilization up to that point.
This book explains it extremely well and backs it up with data in excruciating detail (which you can read or skip if you're convinced early on).
People think that Malthus predicted exponential population growth, but his actual observation was exactly what the above comment described. Growth in productivity would lead to growth in population until wealth per capita reached the same point it was at before. No improvement in productivity would ever actually improve the human condition, just increase its size. Malthus was absolutely right at the time he made this observation of his so called "Malthusian trap".
The observation you make about the modern world and lower birth rates started very abruptly not long after Malthus published his findings. The industrial revolution literally invalidated what had been true for all of human civilization up to that point.