Quote#Politics & Power
The employment of the poor in roads and public works, and a tendency…
Quote byThomas Robert Malthus · 1766–1834
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Principles of Political Economy (Second Edition 1836), Book II, Chapter I, On The Progress of Wealth, Section X, p. 430.
English (original)
The employment of the poor in roads and public works, and a tendency among landlords and persons of property to build, to improve and beautify their grounds, and to employ workmen and menial servants, are the means most within our power and most directly calculated to remedy the evils arising from that disturbance in the balance of produce and consumption.
— Thomas Robert Malthus
More from Thomas Robert Malthus
The transfer of three shillings and sixpence a day to every labourer would not increase the quantity of meat in the country. There is not at present enough for all to have a decent share. What would then be the consequence?
The love of independence is a sentiment that surely none would wish to see erased from the breast of man, though the parish law of England, it must be confessed, is a system of all others the most calculated gradually to weaken this …
It is an acknowledged truth in philosophy that a just theory will always be confirmed by experiment.
To remedy the frequent distresses of the common people, the poor laws of England have been instituted; but it is to be feared that though they may have alleviated a little the intensity of individual misfortune, they have spread the …
Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio, Subsistence, increases only in an arithmetical ratio.
I feel no doubt whatever that the parish laws of England have contributed to raise the price of provisions and to lower the real price of labour.