{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 186/1918-12-13/p016","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"Such, my dear friends, is the whole direction of thought in all these theories of political economy. “What is the best way of arranging the social structure?” In this connection one idea may possibly occur to you and if so it may well seem to you the most important of all. It is a question which was not really clearly seen even by the Physiocrats. In all the systems of political economy of which I have spoken hitherto, they considered what is the best way of arranging and producing the economic structure of society. But as we follow up the thoughts that here emerge, we are reminded again and again that there is also another question, namely this: What is the essential purpose of this economic life? Its object cannot merely be to distribute whatever is available. Surely it must also see to it that something *shall* be available; that the necessary material goods shall really be produced. The point is, after all, to produce the necessary goods from the Earth. What then is the relation of man to the goods that are to be derived from the Earth? It was Malthus who first put forward conscious thoughts upon this question, and it must be said that his thought took a line which may well cause humanity considerable misgiving. The cardinal question which Malthus brings to light, and the view which he puts forward in answer to it, are by no means quite unfounded. He says: Let us consider the increase in the human population of the Earth. He believed, as many modern people do, that the population of the Earth is always increasing. Then let us consider the increase in the food-stuffs and means-of-life that are produced. We shall obtain a certain ratio. Malthus expresses it somewhat mathematically. He says: The increase in food-stuffs will take place in arithmetical, and the increase in population in geometrical, progression. I may make it clear by a few numbers. Let us assume that the increase in the food-stuffs produced is in the ratio 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Then we shall have the corresponding geometrical ratio, 1, 4, 9, 16, 25. In other words, his idea is, the population will increase much faster than the available food-stuffs. Mankind in its evolution cannot escape the danger that a struggle for existence will arise, for in the last resort there will be far too many people in relation to the increase in the food-stuff. Thus he conceives the economic evolution of mankind from quite a different point of view, namely, from the aspect of the connection of man with the conditions of the Earth. He comes to the conclusion, or at least his followers come to the conclusion, that it is against the real line of evolution to practice much charity and welfare work for the poor, and the like. For by so doing we only encourage over-population, and this is harmful to the evolution of mankind. He even comes to the point of saying: Whosoever is weak in life, let us leave him unsupplied, unsupported, for it is necessary that the unfit should be weeded out. And he conceives other methods of which I will not speak at this point. I will but indicate their nature. He recommends especially the two-children system in order to counteract the natural tendency to over-population. Wars he regards as something that must necessarily arise in human evolution, because it is a tendency of nature for the population to increase far more rapidly than the means of life.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"I. The Transforming of Instinctive into Conscious Impulses","site_heading":null,"date":"1918-12-13","location":null,"word_count":590,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/186/1918-12-13/p016","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"not_established","translator":null,"identified_edition":"C52","book_title":"The Fundamental Social Demand of Our Times","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA186/English/C52/19181213p01.html","evidence":null,"reason":"no_translator_named","note":"Neither the lecture's own page nor rsarchive's lecture list names a translator for it. No translator is established for this lecture: nothing at the level of the lecture names one. Do not attribute this English to a translator, and do not borrow a credit from another lecture of the volume. Cite the German for anything load-bearing."},"edition_coverage":{"de":["original"],"en":["English"]},"available_versions":[{"lang":"de","edition":"original","edition_basis":null,"is_original":true,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/186/1918-12-13/p016"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/186/1918-12-13/p016","paragraph_aligned":true}],"record":{"record_type":"unknown","scope":"volume","note":"How this text was taken down (shorthand transcript, listeners' notes or manuscript) is not on record here. Unknown is not an assurance of a stenogram: check the edition's own notes before resting an argument on one word.","evidence":null,"evidence_translation":null,"evidence_source":null},"german_anchor":{"de_prefix":"1918-12-13","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 186/1918-12-13/p014","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/186/1918-12-13/p014"}],"bead_confidence":"high","pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false,"length_check":{"de_words":529,"en_words":590,"ratio":1.12,"partial":false},"correspondence":"established","note":"English passage numbering is edition-relative, so the same number need not name the same paragraph in the German. The German original passage(s) above are the edition-invariant anchor — fetch them (lang='de') to verify wording before quoting across editions."},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 186/1918-12-13/p014","passage_number":14,"text":"Nun sehen Sie, die ganze Richtung des Gedankens geht bei solchen Volkswirtschaftslehrern darauf hin: Wie richtet man die soziale Struktur am besten ein? — Nun aber wird Ihnen dabei vielleicht eine Frage kommen, die Ihnen als die wichtigste dünken könnte, die ja in ihrer Eigenart auch von den Physiokraten nicht ganz klar ins Auge gefaßt wird. Es wird nachgedacht in den volkswirtschaftlichen Systemen, von denen ich bisher gesprochen habe, wie man am besten die volkswirtschaftliche Struktur herbeiführen kann. Allein die Verfolgung dieser Gedanken, die hier zutagetreten, die erinnert einen doch immer wieder daran, daß da auch die andere Frage da ist, die Frage: Was will denn eigentlich die ganze Volkswirtschaft? — Sie will doch nicht nur, sie kann wenigstens nicht nur verteilen wollen, was da ist, sondern sie muß doch auch darauf sehen, daß etwas da ist, daß materielle Güter wirklich produziert werden. Es kommt ja auch darauf an, daß man der Erde Güter abgewinnt. Wie steht das Verhältnis des Menschen zu den Gütern, die der Erde abgewonnen werden? Darüber hat eigentlich erst Malthus bewußte Gedanken aufgestellt, und zwar liefen seine Gedanken in einer Bahn, die im Grunde genommen schon den Menschen bis zu einem gewissen Grade bedenklich machen kann. So ganz unbegründet ist es durchaus nicht, was als eine Kardinalfrage, und was als eine Anschauung über diese Kardinalfrage Malthus gerade zutage gefördert hat. Er sagte: Wenn man überblickt die Bevölkerungszunahme der Erde - er war der Ansicht, der ja viele moderne Menschen sind, daß die Bevölkerung der Erde immer zunimmt -, und wenn man überblickt die Zunahme der geförderten Nahrungsmittel, der geförderten Lebensmittel, so stellt sich ein Verhältnis heraus. Und Malthus drückt es etwas mathematisch aus, indem er sagt: Die Zunahme der Lebensmittel geht in arithmetischer, die Zunahme der Menschen in geometrischer Progression vor sich. — Ich kann Ihnen vielleicht durch ein paar Zahlen dies klar machen. Nehmen wir an, das Verhältnis der Nahrungsmittelzunahme ist 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, so würden wir das geometrische Verhältnis haben: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16. Er meint mit anderen Worten, die Bevölkerung nimmt viel schneller zu, als die Nahrungsmittel zunehmen. Er ist also der Ansicht, die Entwickelung der Menschheit kann der Gefahr gar nicht entgehen, daß Kampf ums Dasein eintritt, und daß endlich viel zuviele Menschen da sind im Verhältnis zur Nahrungsmittelzunahme. Also er faßt die volkswirtschaftliche Entwickelung der Menschheit von einem ganz anderen Gesichtspunkte aus ins Auge; von dem Gesichtspunkte des Zusammenhanges des Menschen mit den Erdenverhältnissen. Er kommt dazu, oder wenigstens seine Anhänger kommen dazu, daß es eigentlich gegen die Entwickelung spricht, viel Armenpflege und dergleichen zu treiben, denn dadurch züchtet man nur die Übervölkerung,; und das ist der Menschheitsentwickelung schädlich. Er kommt sogar dazu, zu sagen: Derjenige, der schwach ist im Leben, den lasse man ununterstützt, denn es kommt darauf an, daß die Unzulänglichen im Leben ausgemerzt werden. - Er versucht dann noch andere Mittel, von denen ich hier nicht sprechen will, ich kann es nur andeuten. Das Zweikindersystem sucht er namentlich zu empfehlen, um die Naturtendenz der Übervölkerung hintanzuhalten. Kriege betrachtet er als etwas, was notwendig in der Menschheitsentwickelung auftreten muß, weil eben die Naturtendenz vorhanden ist, daß die Bevölkerungszunahme eine weitaus schnellere ist als die Lebensmittelzunahme.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":529,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/186/1918-12-13/p014"}],"english":["GA 186/1918-12-13/p016"],"method":"length","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":529,"en_words":590,"ratio":1.12,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.1,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":8687,"original_word_count":7876,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"not_established","translator":null,"identified_edition":"C52","book_title":"The Fundamental Social Demand of Our Times","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA186/English/C52/19181213p01.html","evidence":null,"reason":"no_translator_named","note":"Neither the lecture's own page nor rsarchive's lecture list names a translator for it. No translator is established for this lecture: nothing at the level of the lecture names one. Do not attribute this English to a translator, and do not borrow a credit from another lecture of the volume. Cite the German for anything load-bearing.","warning":"No translator is recorded for this edition. An unattributed translation cannot be weighed as a witness: you cannot tell which hand made the choices in it. Cite the German for anything load-bearing."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 186/1918-12-13/p014"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"high","note":"Every load-bearing name in the German counterpart appears in this English passage. That is a check on NAMES only: a translation can keep every name and still reverse who acts on whom, change a number, or soften a claim. Read the German for anything you intend to rest an argument on."},"note":"quote_safe certifies the bytes of this text. 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