Every Christmas season, A Christmas Carol returns to our screens and pages as a story of generosity, redemption, and hope. But beneath the familiar narrative, Charles Dickens was also making a powerful argument—one that challenges how society views the poor, children, and human worth itself.
In today’s Christmas episode of Faith & Finance, we sat down with Jerry Bowyer, our resident economist and president of Bowyer Research, to explore the deeper economic and theological message Dickens embedded in this classic tale.
The Meaning Behind “Surplus Population”
One of the most disturbing lines in A Christmas Carol comes from Ebenezer Scrooge, who suggests that the poor might be better off dying to reduce the “surplus population.”
Jerry explained that this phrase wasn’t casual or poetic—it was loaded with meaning in Dickens’ day. It reflected the influence of Thomas Malthus, an economist whose ideas shaped early 19th-century thinking. Malthus believed population growth would always outpace food and resources, making widespread poverty inevitable. His conclusion? Society should discourage the poor from having children.
Dickens deliberately places this language in the mouth of his villain. Scrooge isn’t just cruel—he’s the embodiment of a philosophy that treats people as economic problems rather than human beings made in God’s image.
Jerry noted that Dickens was, in effect, writing A Christmas Carol as a rebuttal to Malthus.
By the time Dickens wrote the story, Britain was entering what economists now call the Great Takeoff—a period of unprecedented growth in productivity, trade, and human flourishing. Malthus had predicted catastrophe just before abundance exploded.
Dickens highlights this abundance through scenes overflowing with food, trade goods, and celebration. The message is clear: people don’t merely consume resources—they create them.
Scarcity, Trauma, and Scrooge’s Past
Dickens doesn’t excuse Scrooge’s cruelty, but he does explain it. Through the Ghost of Christmas Past, we see a lonely boy shaped by hunger, cold, and deprivation.
Jerry pointed out that Scrooge’s scarcity mindset is rooted in trauma. His fear of lack leads him to believe that God—if He exists at all—is stingy. That fear shapes his economics, his relationships, and his resistance to generosity.
The turning point comes when Scrooge encounters the Ghost of Christmas Present. When told the spirit has over 1,800 brothers—each representing a Christmas—Scrooge responds, “What a large family to provide for.”
It’s another glimpse of his scarcity thinking. And it draws sharp rebuke.
Jerry emphasized that Dickens is confronting the idea that more people mean less provision. In contrast, Scripture reveals a God who is generous, creative, and abundant—and who commands humanity to fill the earth, not fear it.
No One Is Disposable
By the end of the story, Scrooge is transformed. He becomes generous, relational, and deeply concerned for others—especially children like Tiny Tim.
Jerry observed that in a Malthusian worldview, Tiny Tim is expendable. But Dickens—and the gospel—say otherwise. There are no surplus people.
Even Jesus Himself, Jerry noted, would have been classified as “surplus population” by such a system—born poor, dependent, and unwanted by the powerful.
The language may have changed, but the ideas persist. Whenever society treats children as burdens, the poor as problems, or human life as expendable in the name of efficiency or sustainability, we are hearing echoes of Scrooge before his redemption.
Dickens reminds us that economics is always moral—and theology always shapes how we view people.
Watching With New Eyes
As Jerry put it, A Christmas Carol isn’t just a holiday story. It’s a challenge to scarcity, fear, and dehumanization—
