If we interpret "ever increasing number of mouths to feed" as "more people", we can imagine the following: I sell a product. The more people buy my product, th

If we interpret "ever increasing number of mouths to feed" as "more people", we can imagine the following: I sell a product. The more people buy my product, the more money I make. The more people there are, the more people will buy my product. The more people there are, the larger the labor pool I can choose from. The larger the labor pool I can choose from, the more the workers' wages get depressed, so my profit margins get bigger. So the more people there are, the more money I make. Obviously this is highly reductionist. Also, I don't think saying capitalism "demands" increased population growth is quite right. We can certainly imagine individual businesses who would not like population growth (e.g. mom-and-pop stores who know that increased local population increases the likelihood of a Walmart being erected and putting them out of business). But on the whole, I think the presence of capitalism trends towards increasing population.