Hardin begins his essay with the metaphor that the Earth and its resources are a lifeboat. This is to explain his main claim, that the world’s resources cannot be distributed equally. To explain, only so many people may fit on this lifeboat, just like only so many people have access to the worlds limited resources. And trying to fit too many people on this lifeboat will sink it. He brings up the proposal of the “World Food Bank” Hardin dismisses this idea because of the fact that poor countries increase at a rate of 2.5 percent each year. Whereas rich countries are at a much slimmer 0.8 percent. For example, “If they can always draw on a world food bank in time of need, their population can continue to grow unchecked, and so will their
