Law of Population 79 



is demonstrated more certainly still. Many posts of 

 employment are rendered vacant by employers being 

 unable to maintain them. The demand of the labour 

 market is thus reduced and, year after year, fewer 

 labourers are employed. Accordingly, the number of 

 young men who are enabled to obtain employment by 

 succeeding to posts rendered vacant by death tends to 

 grow smaller, and thus the marrying power of the 

 community is curtailed until the birth-rate actually 

 falls below the death-rate, and the population dwindles ; 

 the standard of living tends to deteriorate ; employers 

 are no longer able to offer the large wages they did, 

 while labourers compete with each other to obtain such 

 wages as employers can afford. 



A man cannot enter into the wedded state unless he 

 possesses means of subsistence which suffice for himself 

 and his wife, and this subsistence must come in some 

 form or another from the labour market. Accordingly, 

 whoever is in possession of means to enable him to marry 

 — from the King to the humblest labourer — whether 

 he obtains these from the labour of his own hands or by 

 the industry of others, may be said to occupy a post of 

 employment that places marriage within his reach. 

 Even thieves and burglars must be placed in this 

 category, for if they marry it is because their gains 

 suffice for the married life. Now and again imprudent 

 marriages do occur. The means of subsistence are not 

 visible. But the percentage of these is so small that it 

 does not affect the general law nor interfere with the 

 general result. What is sufficient means upon which 

 to marry for one man may be quite insufficient for 

 another. It all depends upon the social scale in which 

 he finds himself. The law is that a man does not marry 

 until he has acquired means which will enable him, in 

 his degree, to marry. This law must not be confounded 

 with Malthus's check of moral restraint. It is a law 



