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Garrett Hardin's Argument For Helping The Poor

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Helping the poor
Garrett Hardin puts forward an argument against helping the poor that it will increase overpopulation. It is agreeable that his idea of helping the poor will increase overpopulation. Overpopulation is an acute problem that effect the poor even today. Many of the richer countries are like a lifeboat, trying to stay afloat, because only so many people can fit into the lifeboat. So while doing what they can to help others they have to not drown themselves. By stopping or regulating immigration would help the poor because it causes overpopulation in certain areas of the world that brings a host of other problems along with it. Lastly, even though the world created the world food bank it has done little to stop the problems of the poor. …show more content…

The life boat, however, of the wealthier countries are limited in resources and do not have the space to let anyone else in. If they try to save the poorer people from drowning because they only have so much room and to share the wealth with them would outcome in a catastrophe for everyone. Hardin states, “And since the world’s resources are dwindling, the difference in prosperity between the rich and poor can only increase” (584). The 'boat' would sink or the resources would run out, meaning that everybody would drown. Hardin metaphor demonstrates that, overall, it would be devastating to help the poor; the world's resources would be exhausted and no one would live. So, it can be proved that Hardin's argument is true on several

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The poverty dilemma has been one of the greatest phenomenon that our society has seen over the past 40 years and it became one of the most important factors of political problems. Poverty has many faces, some people define it as the lack of money or food, and others define it as feeling unwanted in the society. On a macro level, a nation called poor when the most of its population falls under the poverty line and here where the author Garrett Hardin enter the scene with his article lifeboat ethics. He simile the nations with the lifeboats as both of them has a limited capacity. Garrett Hardin was an ecologist who were much warned about the human overpopulation and its results .Hardin received a B.S. in zoology from the University of Chicago

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Benjamin thinks that just because people are born in a poor country does not mean they are still not human beings and should be aided by the US. He said the “United States has always been a humanitarian people’. (350) Both of these writer’s are not in agreement when it comes to population control either. Walter says Garret did not consider some possible solutions to the overpopulation like family planning, and ZPG (Zero Population Growth) (347-348). Hardin writes that poor country’s have higher population growth than rich countries and that if we send them food they’re population will grow even higher but if we don’t there population will be “checked by crop failures and famines” (423).

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