Smith & Ricardo vs. Malthus, Bentham, Senior, J.S. Mill and Say Essay

Smith & Ricardo vs. Malthus, Bentham, Senior, J.S. Mill and Say - Essay Example It leads to increased productivity and consequently greater output, high wages and income per capita thus opulence of nations (Ekelund & Hebert 129). Natural harmony exists in economy due to the mechanism of the ‘invisible hand’ which drives individuals’ self-interests to promote greater good hence there is no need for government intervention. Competition in the market is vital and money is just for making trade more flexible. David Ricardo (1772-1823) in his Principles of political economy and taxation (1817) was concerned with distribution of wealth within Smith’s analytical framework. Like Smith he advocated for competition without restraint. He also acknowledged existence of use value and exchange value but concentrated on the natural exchange value which is determined by scarcity and labor cost of production (Bhatia, 116). Since rent is not part of the cost (its value in excess of real production) and capital is past labor, this leaves labor cost to determine relative value of commodities (Ekelund & Hebert 156). However, different types of labor are adjusted in market by relative rates of rewards and wages gravitate towards subsistence. If more than subsistence then population (labor supply) increases depressing wages and vice versa (p. 120). Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834) focus was on population. Unlike Ricardo, he saw an imbalance between population and means of subsistence hence ineffective demand. For Malthus population increased in geometrical progression while means of subsistence increased in arithmetic progression hence population was bound to outstrip supply of means of subsistence if not checked (Bhatia 135). Population growth thus needed to be checked through preventive and positive checks such as delayed marriage, celibacy, moral restraint, floods, droughts, famine, disease and war. For Smith and Ricardo, demand for labor determined rate of population increase and was always kept