![]() Moreover, Hardin fails to recognize the ways in which rich countries actually hinder the economic development of poor countries, for instance, through neoliberalism, extraction, unfair development loans, and historically speaking, the processes of colonization. In addition, while Hardin compares countries with carrying capacities to lifeboats, where a lifeboat has a fixed carrying capacity before it sinks, the carrying capacities of real-world nations are in constant flux and vary based on region, environment, and population. He fails to realize that no country contains all poor people, or conversely, all rich people rather, each country contains wealth inequality and more countries are somewhere in the middle-income range economically. Yet, in the lifeboat analogy, the people of poorer countries are at a disadvantage, while wealthier nations possess an advantage of resources and quality of life (Hardin 1974, pp. The main difference between the two is that in the spaceship analogy, everyone on Earth has equal access to the limited resources. He begins by asking, “What should rich passengers on a rich lifeboat do,” claiming this is the central issue of lifeboat ethics. Hardin disregards the environmentalist ‘spaceship’ analogy, and pioneers a new concept, that of ‘living on a lifeboat’ (Hardin 1974, p. I conclude by revisiting the concept of the lifeboat analogy and offering an ethical suggestions for reducing poverty. Following, I offer some criticisms of Hardin’s lifeboat analogy to demonstrate how the errors he describes are wrongly attributed to poor countries and should be directed towards rich, developed countries in the Global North who consume more resources than required for their population. This paper will explore his main arguments, that providing aid to poor countries would result in unchecked population growth beyond the “carrying capacity” of their environments, ultimately acting as a catalyst for greater environmental and social issues and leading to the ‘fundamental error of the sharing ethic,’ that is, the tragedy of the commons. In his article, “Living on a Lifeboat,” population biologist Garrett Hardin made an influential, albeit controversial, argument regarding the process of wealth and resource distribution (Hardin 1974). Analysis and Criticism of Hardin’s Lifeboat Concept.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |