Biologists and intelligent lay writers are raising the alarm on what is coming if population continues to increase: exhaustion of soils and mass starvation, deterioration of the ecosphere to the point where it is not livable, or if not that then at the very best declining incomes and loss of the amenities and accomplishments to which this generation has become accustomed. On the other side neoclassical economics, that also has a lay following, provides optimistic comfort: with modern ingenuity, given scope and stimulus by the freeing of markets, all shortages will be overcome, all deterioration repaired. Not population, but artificial constraints on the market, are doing the damage. The present survey is concerned with the consequences of population change and takes for granted that once development occurs population will come under control
