breeding like rabbits

[Thumpalumpacus]

Perhaps one of the most influential writings was Thomas Malthus's 1798 treatise, "An Essay on the Principle of Population" in which he noted that population increase was exponential whereas food production increase was arithmetic (i.e. the population would increase 4X for every 2X increase in food production). It wasn't clear how he derived those figures.

They're not making land any more ... and making land arable and productive is much more time-consuming than making newborn mouths to feed.