There are now 8 billion people living on the planet.

Is there enough room for all of us?

Aren't we going to run out of natural resources?

How are we going to feed everybody?

These are not new questions.

Doomseers have been asking them for at least 200 years.

In 1798, an English economist named Thomas Malthus wrote his famous essay on the Principle

of Population.

In it, Malthus claimed that population grew exponentially, while resources needed to

feed that population grew at a linear rate.

The difference between the two growth rates he argued must lead to starvation.

Malthus was wrong and not by a little, by a lot.

As the population grew, food production improved and so did almost everything else.

Due to the life of a typical American blue-collar worker of the span of a century.

Using a unit of measurement known as time prices, we can estimate the amount of time someone

would have to work to buy a given item.

Between 1900 and 2018, the length of time our blue-collar worker had to work to earn enough

money to buy a pound of pork fell by 98%.

To buy a pound of rice by 97%.

To buy a pound of coffee, 94%.

While people can't eat rubber, aluminum or cotton, these commodities are valuable inputs

in the production processes that impact the prices of goods and services and hence the

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