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Better Business Decisions from Data
book

Better Business Decisions from Data

by Peter Kenny
June 2014
Beginner to intermediate
288 pages
7h 2m
English
Apress
Content preview from Better Business Decisions from Data

CHAPTER 17

Extrapolation

Malthus Got It Wrong

Thomas Malthus, an English cleric, economist, and statistician, is known for his theories on population growth. He wrote in 1798 in his Essay on the Principle of Population that, because population increases geometrically (1, 2, 4, 8, …) and food increases arithmetically (1, 2, 3, 4, …), the population would eventually outstrip food supply. He warned of premature death visiting the human race. The onset of disaster would be prevented only by epidemics, pestilence, plague, famine, and preventive measures. His numerous writings on the subject gave rise to the Malthusian doctrine.

This doctrine is based on an extrapolation; and because it was proposed a long time ago, we can see that it was unjustified. ...

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9781484201848Purchase book