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Oxfam, Malthus and the Worst Prediction in Economic History
Author(s) -
Davies Stephen
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
economic affairs
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.24
H-Index - 18
eISSN - 1468-0270
pISSN - 0265-0665
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0270.2011.02115_1.x
Subject(s) - government (linguistics) , china , communism , distribution (mathematics) , economics , consumption (sociology) , point (geometry) , food prices , agricultural economics , economic policy , economy , development economics , agriculture , food security , political science , history , politics , law , mathematics , mathematical analysis , social science , philosophy , linguistics , geometry , archaeology , sociology
A report recently published by Oxfam received a huge amount of attention. The report argued that world food prices will double over the next 30 years and that the only solution is ‘radical reform of the world food system’ which translates to mean extensive government controls over the production, supply and distribution of foodstuffs. It is surprising that they are so confi dent as to the level of prices in 30 years’ time and even more surprising that they look to government given the catastrophic record of states in managing food supply – Communist China, the British Empire and the Soviet Union all managed to create famines that killed millions. However, it is history that tells us both where the authors of the report are coming from and why we should reject both their analysis and prescriptions.