Garrett Hardin's Sympathy For The Poor

The earth is ultimately considered to be, in Garrett Hardin’s not so humble opinion, a lifeboat with a mere capacity of 50. However, the boat can withstand another 10 passengers unsafely. This metaphor is suggesting that in a world with considerably more poor compared to rich, the rich are the lifeboat amongst a vast sea of lesser. By helping the poor into the already unstable craft, they are inevitably killing themselves. Hardin is making the statement that helping the poor with resources while they are in dire need is wasteful. However, Jonathan Swift, born in a privileged Irish social class, has sympathy for the poor. He suggests that to avoid embarrassment of the Irish land that the poor sell their children as food to the rich. As unsettling

Hardin uses logos to back up his claim of avoiding sending resources to countries he doesn’t believe will make good use of. He mentions that the increase of people is of high magnitude compared to the amount of resources that are available. “Initially the ratio of Americans to non-Americans in this model would be one-to-one. But consider what the ratio would be after 87 years… Americans would have doubled to a population of 420 million. By then, doubling every 21 years, the other group would have swollen to 3.54 billion. Each American would have to share the available resources with more than eight people” (Hardin 173). Hardin then continues to introduce the idea of the Tragedy of the commons. What he means by this is: There must be a control or there will basically be a downfall. Using the reference of cattle in a pasture, he says that a farmer who allows too many cows in will cause erosion to the land. With that being said, Hardin means that with so many poor people in this area with so little resources and no control over what’s being spent will ultimately cause more damage. Swift has an entirely different idea. His use of irony is uncanny. He proposes that to eliminate over-population and decrease the amount of poverty, the poor should sell their children as food for the rich. This establishes just how extreme the conditions in Ireland really are. Swift sets the setting with children all

However, when it comes to having a strong ethical dilemma, Jonathan Swifts essay takes the cake. The suggestion that children could suffice as provisions for the wealthy is definitely morally wrong. His use of irony is slightly dark considering he sees nothing wrong with what he is suggesting. While Hardin is uncaring of what happens to the poor, his proposal was more ethical. Countries should be able to carry their own weight and fend for themselves. Other countries shouldn’t have to save for disasters while the country that is in need, didn’t put forth the same work. Basically, everyone has to make choices that aren’t necessarily choices they want to make. In order to keep the world going round and round, there has to be an order to