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Makell Peterson

Prof. Parry

English 2010

May 23, 2022

Helping the Poor is Hurting the Rich

“Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping the Poor”, the author Garret Hardin,

discussed the harsh realities of why helping the poor is hurting the rich. He goes on to talk about

the moral side of things, along with the many downsides. “Environmentalists use the metaphor of

the earth as a “spaceship” in trying to persuade countries, industries, and people to stop wasting

and polluting all our natural resources”. Hardin uses this metaphor about the spaceship to show

that earth is more like a lifeboat. He does not believe that every person has equal rights to an

equal share of the earth’s resources. He explains how the spaceship metaphor can mislead people

to think the best way to share resources is through uncontrolled immigration and assisting

foreign countries. He discusses how immigration, population control, worldwide food reserves

like the World Food Bank, food supply, and effect on the environment all play role in helping the

poor. “Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping the Poor” show great use of logos, ethos, and

pathos to help reinforce Hardin’s argument against helping the poor.

Garrett Hardin was, viewed by many. a famous scientist and environmentalist. He wrote

many different articles and books about his beliefs and life’s work, which include fighting

against immigration into America. He served on the board of directors for two different groups,

Federations for American Immigration Reform and The Social Contract Press. While alive, he

taught at the University of California in Santa Barbara for almost sixty years. There he taught

about Human Ecology and earned himself many awards. Hardin wrote “Lifeboat Ethics: the Case
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Against Helping the Poor” in September of 1974. During this time immigration laws were

constantly changing and adjusting to meet the demand of immigrants coming into the United

States.

Throughout the paper, Hardin uses many different strategies, one of being the rhetoric of

logos, with facts and statistics. In the section, Population Control the Crude Way, Hardin

discusses that if rich countries are always coming to poor countries aid there will be no self-

regulated population control. He uses the fact “On average poor countries undergo a 2.5 percent

increase in population each year; rich countries, about 0.8 percent”. This shows that poor

countries grow faster than rich countries. Throughout the multiple section he uses different facts

and logical ideas to support his reasoning.

The next strategy that the author uses is the appeal of ethos. The author references many

organizations and strong authorities that support certain proposals that Hardin covers in his

article. Hardin discusses the World Food Bank Proposal and how the proposal received support

from U.N. Secretary General Kurt Waldheim, Senators Edward Kennady and George McGovern,

along with many liberal international groups. In this section, he also brings up a similar program

that was used in the United States called Food for Peace. He gives examples of how much money

it cost taxpayers and that they were forced to contribute to the cost of the program.

Hardin relies mostly on his own ideas and credibility to support his claims, which makes

the ethos appeal of the text the weakest. Hardin notes the names that supported the World Food

Bank Proposal to show that it is credible. He also uses some information from “What Other

Nations Hear When the Eagle Screams” by Kenneth J. and Mary N. Gergen, PT, June as a

resource in the section of Population Control the Crude Way. With this being the only resource,

he uses some people may view this as a down fall to his argument.
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The final appeal that Hardin uses in his text is pathos. Through the words and phrases

that Hardin uses you can feel his passion about the topic of immigration and supplying foreign

aid. Hardin uses the example of a lifeboat that can only hold sixty people that only has fifty

people on it, but there are one hundred stranded people in the water begging to get on the boat.

He goes on to talk about a couple different scenarios that could play out. One being let them all

on and then sinking the boat, select only ten people to join, and finally not allowing any more

individuals. He uses words such as “begging”, “tempted”, “morals”, “guilt-ridden conscience”,

and “ethics” to elaborate his ideology that the best solution is to not let any more onto the

lifeboat. This helps the reader feel the emotions of what the people swimming are feeling, along

with what the people on the boat are feeling.

Hardin does a good job throughout the rest of the text as well to keep the same emotion

and passion in his voice all while helping the reader feel the emotion of both the poor and rich

countries. Towards the end of the text, Hardin is talking about immigration and food supply. He

gives the example that “to Hawaiians immigrants from the other 49 states present as great a

threat as those from other nations.” He then goes onto say that some people would like to

eventually bring more of their family from Japan to Hawaii to live with them. The story then

goes on that with Hawaii’s growing population that would not be feasible to bring in more

relatives or people in from Japan, the United States, or other countries. The population in Hawaii

is growing to quickly to keep up with immigration. The author then points out that some

“liberals” would try to justify why they should be able to bring their family. Hardin goes on to

explain that “our craving for intellectual order leads us to seek and prefer symmetrical rules and

morals.” He shows the emotion of the immigrant along with the people who already live there.
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Overall, I feel that the use of logos, pathos, and ethos was very persuasive. The author did

a good job of making an argument with logos and pathos. The author did fall short using ethos.

Hardin was able to get a lot of information out there that he had found and believed, but without

background information on the author you would not know that it is credible. With the research

and knowledge, I have of Hardin I know that he was a credible source. The audience Hardin

would be trying to reach they would know his background and credibility making it a very

persuasive article. I think Hardin reached his intended audience with this essay. Hardin was able

to briefly show and feel the opposing side, but he always brought it back to his point with strong

facts and passion. Overall, Hardin hit his intended audience with very persuasive information.

Works Cited
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Hardin, Garrett. “Lifeboat Ethics: the Case Against Helping the Poor.” Lifeboat Ethics: The
Case against Helping the Poor by Garrett Hardin - the Garrett Hardin Society - Articles,
24 Nov. 2015,
https://www.garretthardinsociety.org/articles/art_lifeboat_ethics_case_against_helping_po
or.html.

“Garrett Hardin.” Senate.universityofcalifornia.edu,

senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/_files/inmemoriam/html/garretthardin.htm.