Garrett Hardin Lifeboat Ethics Summary

Garrett Hardin was a Professor of Ecology on the subjects of resource in western civilization. Dr. Hardin was born in the early 1900’s and lived until 2003. With a Bachelor’s Degree in Zoology and a PHD in Microbiology, Dr. Hardin was known for his brutally honest thoughts on human overpopulation. Some of his writings were considered inhumane which made him widely be criticized. (Wikipedia.) In his article “Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping the Poor,” using real world examples and lifeboat metaphor, Dr. Hardin strongly warned to developed countries that they must protect their resources and leave others to defend for themselves. He also stated that if we do not protect our resources, in the future, there will be nothing left because resources are not unlimited.
Dr. Hardin began his article with describing the world as a lifeboat. He claimed that it is not fair to share our lifeboat with other. He also said that the world’s resources cannot be distributed equally, and any attempts to equally distribute current resources will ruin them. Our lifeboat has its own limited capacity, but there are so many people want to get in and try to fit all will make the boat sink. We just leave them, and they will work out if they want to survive. This phenomenon he calls “The Tragedy of
By allowing more people in to the U.S, he says, we are overpopulating our own country and thus reducing our resources. That means we are directly sharing our resources to others. He says we need to close the doors now or it will be too late. Quantity is the issue, not bigotry or racism, and too many people in the lifeboat will simply cause it to capsize. He also mentions that justice is a craving that most people have. We prefer rules that are stable by the time and place, but our world simply does not work on that way, and it will harm our survived