“Lifeboat Ethics: the Case Against Helping Poor”, summary

In his article “Lifeboat Ethics: the Case Against Helping Poor,” Garrett Hardin argues that our planet faces the problem of overpopulation. The reproduction rate in poor countries is much higher than in rich countries. Therefore, while population of poor nations is increasing tremendously, the ratio of rich nations steadily decreases. Hardin also introduces the concept of “The Tragedy of The Commons’’ and explains it as a negative effect on consumers of common resources around the world. It has already occurred in today’s society and not only polluted our environment but also led to overpopulation. The initiative of rich countries to help the poor resulted in creation of The World Food Bank. Yet, Hardin claims that this program stops the development of poor nations and lets them rely on rich countries when emergency occurs. While trying to find a solution for this problem and help the poor, the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations made the “Green Revolution” program, the goal of which is to teach poor nations to grow “miracle wheat” and “miracle rice.” Hardin argues that this program resulted in the spread of cancer and overloading the environment; thus, by trying to save people from starvation, other harms were created. Hardin beliefs that immigration is another push factor of the overpopulation issue because it allows people to escape from poor nations and burden the ecosystem of rich countries. Consequently, in “Lifeboat Ethics: the Case Against Helping Poor,” Garrett Hardin suggests that our planet could be saved only by following these advices otherwise, there will be nothing left to the next generations.