...John Pullen A well-known and fundamental element in the population theory of Thomas Robert Malthus is the concept of prudential or moral restraint. A less well-known but just as fundamental element is the “desire of bettering our condition,” also described by Malthus as the “ vis medicatrix...

... to better our condition, combined with freedom and the security of the law. The propensity to better our condition is grounded in our vanity and can take the form of both parsimony and prodigality. The laws that guarantee freedom and security seem to be more of an accident of history than deliberate...

... . Raphael D. D. Macfie A. L. . 1976 . Introduction to The Theory of Moral Sentiments . Oxford : Oxford University Press . Rasmussen D. R. 2006 . “ Does ‘Bettering Our Condition’ Really Make Us Better Off? Adam Smith on Progress and Happiness .” American Political Science Review 100...

... of Moral Sentiments tells us that such coordination is embed- ded in the desire for social approbation (as the wish to better our condition will ensure that we will never destroy any surplus). This coordination is an equilibrium of needs but not necessarily of wants. 1. The Modern Narrative...

... in Chapter 111 of Book I1 and later repeated four times, there are references to “the desire of bettering our conditions When Smith introduces this second propensity, he declares that it “comes with us from the womb, and never leaves us till we go to the grave. In the whole interval which...

... imagines. Kirkaldy Smith imagines that we are guided by a multiplicity of sen- timents, one of which is self-love. In Kirkaldy Smith’s moral philoso- phy, our self-love motivates us to better our condition. That spring for human action, given human reason and human frailty, puts humankind...

..., the ultimate catalyst in the transition from agricul- ture to manufacturing was a principle of human nature. In Adam Smith, the “desire to better our condition” promoted savings at the expense of and inspired optimal economic growth by maximizing the size of the ratio of productive...

... ventured to take so important a step. That great vis rnedicutrix reipublica?, the desire of bettering our condition, and the fear of making it worse, has been constantly in action, and has been constantly directing people into the right road in spite of all the dec- lamations which tended...

... . Oxford : Oxford University Press . Rasmussen Dennis C. 2006 . “Does ‘Bettering Our Condition’ Really Make Us Better Off? Adam Smith on Progress and Happiness.” American Political Science Review 100 ( 3 ): 309 – 18 . Recktenwald Horst Claus . 1978 . “An Adam Smith...

... are automatically invested by all but pathological misers (338). The “desire of bettering our condition” is universal, and the best and most obvious way to do that is to save and accumulate (343), so net sav- ing, and hence growth, is normal. Waste by governments diverts saving from productive investment...

... utility, and it is this “ardent desire” for esteem that constitutes the key explanation of that incentive to better our condition (I.iii.2.1/50–51). This “desire of bettering our condition” paradigmatically exemplifies the characteristic restlessness of all desire because, as the well-known...

... to consider of the means of supporting a family before he ventured to take so im- portant a step. That great vis medicatrix reipublicae, the desire of bettering our condition, and the fear of making it worse, has been constantly in action, and has been constantly directing people...

... of bettering our condition and the fear of making it worse” (2:257). There was no requirement that the present generationshould behave altruistically or evencooperatively. The pre- ventive check would be in each family’s self-interest. There was no need to rely uponaltruism or uponcooperation...

... of the MoraE Sentiments deduces his almost Veblenesque explanation for “ that great purpose of human life which we call bettering our condition” (p. 71). Ma- terial self-betterment or the accumulation of palpable riches by a person affords to others the most direct and easiest evidence...

... to sustained growth, he emphasizes that the necessary savings will be am- ply supplied by individuals acting in their own self-interest, driven by in- nate psychological propensities. “The principle which prompts to save,” Smith ([1776] 1976, 341) says, “is the desire of bettering our condition, a desire...

... exchange ensued. G. F. McCleary recounts it very well and summarizes the re- sults.62Senior and Malthus agreed that the rate of growth of the popu- lation depended on the relative strength of “the passion between the sexes” and “the desire of bettering our condition.” They disagreed about...

... of men, and what are the advantages which we propose by that great purpose of human life which we call bettering our condition? To be observed, to be attended to, to be taken notice of with sympathy, complacency, and approbation, are all the advantages which we can propose to derive from...

... the worst possible case, classical economists generally did not view the powers of government as so far-rea~hing.~Say represents a case in point. Say, while like BB he perceived anarchy as a limiting condition, acknowledged the possibility that even anarchy could offer markedly better prospects...

... in mind. Even so, it is a step and it indicates an important development of emphasis in Chalmers. We can illustrate this better by extending our run-up to the subject. The agriculturalist Arthur Young, in An Enquiry into the State of the Public Mind amongst the Lower Classes and on the Means...

... of interest How sensitive is optimal period of production to the real rate of interest p? Differentiate our first-order condition (1 0) implicitly with respect to p treating y as a function of p and find the simple elasticity or, in English, the elasticity of optimal period of production...