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Garrett Hardin's Lifeboat Ethics

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In Garrett Hardin’s “Lifeboat Ethics” he explains that the world we live in is unequal and becoming increasingly poor. He tries to explain that if the poverty isn’t controlled, then the Earth will become completely poor and unrestrained. I believe that Hardin’s writing of “Lifeboat Ethics” is effective and persuasive, because with every solution to fix the poverty of our world he has a counterargument. Hardin uses numbers and percentages to show the population increases of poor countries versus rich ones, and he also paints pictures, using metaphors. Hardin starts off by explaining that two thirds of the population of the earth are (Are or Is?) poor. Poor countries reproduce quicker doubling about every twenty years, while the rich only double …show more content…

While describing the World Food Bank, he mentions that between 1960 and 1970 the US alone spent $7.9 billion through taxes to help other countries have food. He later mentions the speed of the poor population multiplying versus the wealthy. Noticing that the rich only increase by 0.8% every year and the poor increase by 3.3% every year, can create a concern. Hardin says that “the doubling time for this aggregate population is twenty-one years, compared to eighty-seven years for the US” (Hardin 735). This shows that the poor population would have doubled four times before the US doubled once. It also declares that poor of the world is increasing at a tremendous rate and if not controlled soon, the world will be nearly completely poor. The last reason I think that Hardin has a convincing point is his ability to create imagery in his writing. When he starts, he explains that if the world were a lifeboat there would be a third of the population on it and the rest swimming in the ocean. The lifeboat doesn’t have enough to fit the entire ocean of people, just a few. So the people on the lifeboat can let a few on by choice, let them all on, or leave them all. More than likely the lifeboat would choose to leave them because they want to ensure their own safety. Thus explains our

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