Criticism
Carlyle's view was attacked by John Stuart Mill as making a virtue of toil itself, stunting the development of the weak, and committing the "vulgar error of imputing every difference which he finds among human beings to an original difference of nature."
The teachings of Malthus eventually became known under the umbrella phrase "Malthus' Dismal Theorem". While some argue that his predictions were forestalled by dramatic improvements in the efficiency of food production in the 20th century during the Green Revolution, classical liberal economists argue that the law of supply and demand would mean that if the supply of food were to decline, the price of food would then rise, thereby allowing for a gradual adjustment in consumption and preventing an all out famine.
Read more about this topic: The Dismal Science
Famous quotes containing the word criticism:
“It is ... pathetic to observe the complete lack of imagination on the part of certain employers and men and women of the upper-income levels, equally devoid of experience, equally glib with their criticism ... directed against workers, labor leaders, and other villains and personal devils who are the objects of their dart-throwing. Who doesn’t know the wealthy woman who fulminates against the “idle” workers who just won’t get out and hunt jobs?”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)
“Of all the cants which are canted in this canting world—though the cant of hypocrites may be the worst—the cant of criticism is the most tormenting!”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)
“Good criticism is very rare and always precious.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)