In 1798 Thomas Malthus wrote An Essay on the Principle of Population," in which he postulates that food supply never can keep pace with the rate of increase in human population. Increase the supply of food, Malthus argues, and population will rise to meet this increase. This, he asserts, means that the race between population and resources can never be truly won by any sociocultural system. Therefore, some measure of social inequality is inevitable in all human societies.