Garrett Hardin Lifeboat Ethics

Garrett Hardin, a professor at the University of California, wrote the article Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping the Poor. Hardin believed the government was using magnificent amounts of resources to help the needy, and the population of poor communities was increasing more rapidly than the rich communities. He thought helping the poor was a waste of recourses that the government could save for future generation. During Hardin’s article, there was a metaphor that was used constantly. The metaphor was similar to the metaphor about the Spaceship Earth model used by environmentalist. Garrett Hardin used the Lifeboat Ethics metaphor which explained to his readers, the individuals on the lifeboat, surrounded by miles of water, was the rich, and the ones swimming around the lifeboat seeking help was the poor. The lifeboats had a capacity of sixty people, there were currently fifty rich individuals on the lifeboat, and so ten members of the one hundred poor individuals swimming could receive the chance to safety. Hardin (1974) stated,
We could let just ten come afloat, but how would you choose which ten comes to safety? We could leave all one hundred and save our safety factor so we will have room for any catastrophe that may happen within the fifty on the life boat” (p.779).
By this metaphor, Hardin was trying to explain the increasing numbers of poor individuals than rich. If the poor increase more and more over time and the rich only increase some over time, the government will be using a lot more resources (the Food Bank), which could result in a worldwide