The Malthusian trap
About this model
Thomas Malthus, 1798. Population grows geometrically while food grows arithmetically; when food per head falls, hunger and disease raise deaths until population falls back. A teaching model: it keeps only this core loop and leaves out everything else a real economy has.
"The Malthusian trap" is a public Machinations diagram shared in the Community by Machinations, with 26 components.
It was created in October 2026 and last edited in November 2026.
Open the diagram in the Machinations app and press Play to watch the resources move, adjust its values to test how the system responds, or remix it to make an editable copy in My diagrams.
