Life Boat Ethics

In my Global Change class, one of the assigned readings was Lifeboat Ethics: the Case aGainst Helping the Poor by Garrett Hardin. In this paper, Hardin discusses that society seems to find that not everyone has an equal right to or of resources. Rich countries take for themselves and while most of those living outside of its borders seem to drown in poverty. He continues with the idea that the philopatric actions of each wealthy nation do not fully combat the needs of those left in poverty ad we cannot simply choose those who should be helped or those that should be left behind.

While I do agree that there seems to be an inequality between the poor and rich in regards to environmental equity, I do not think the situation is completely hopeless. The World Food Bank and other organizations to provide some benefit to developing nations, but in order to truly aid them, we must allow them to flourish economically. We must actively trade with these nations in terms of agriculture or other resources while helping them to conduct such operations conservatively. With proper trade and legislative efforts, we could do more to give these nations a help up than we could do with a handout. These tactics worked with our own nation in the beginning of the twentieth century, there's no reason they shouldn't' continue to work now - unless corporate America does not want them to.