Mariana Garcia
Mr. Mullen
English 1310 3 April 2014
Morality vs. Reality
Our values and morals are two of the major things that define us as human beings, but we shouldn’t let these two blind us from reality. All my life I’ve been taught to help my neighbor and treat others how I want to be treated, but after reading professor Garrett Hardin’s argument about Lifeboat Ethics I realized that sometimes we may be ignorant to some situations because of our morals. He disapproves the idea of wealthy nations supporting developing nations with foreign aid, immigration, and food banks. In his essay he mentions how sometimes helping other nations can result catastrophic and self destructive due to the limited carrying capacity of the nation. The humane thing to do may not always be the most convenient when referring to these kind of situations. The United States shouldn’t provide foreign aid to developing nations because it only increases its debt, it threatens its ally relationships, and it should fix its own problems first.
It is unreasonable for the U.S. to give money to other countries when we’re currently suffering a debt of $17.5 trillion dollars. As referred to in Hardin’s reading, the world is divided into rich and poor nations leaving the United Sates as one of the rich nations. He uses a metaphor stating that all wealthy nations are lifeboats with wealthy people on board and that the poor nations are the people swimming around the boats in the ocean. If the people onboard help the people that are on the ocean they will exceed the boat’s carrying capacity causing it to sink and everyone will drown. This relates to the real world when referring to immigration and open borders. If people from all over the world come to the United States in search of a job, not only will job availability decrease, but also U.S. citizens will be suffering unemployment. Immigration shouldn’t be banned in the United States, but workforce programs for immigrants should be developed in order to maintain a balance. Instead of providing foreign aid to other countries, the United States should use that money to help the people that are already in our country.
If the United States provides aid to other nations it would probably gain the developing nation’s enemies, therefore it is better for the U.S. to remain neutral. For instance, once two of my best friends had a really strong argument and stopped talking to each other for about 3 months. I didn’t know how to react to the situation because if I would defend one of them then the other one was going to think that I was against her or worse that I was betraying her. So I decided to mind my own business and give them time to solve their problems. Another example is when I was in high school; a girl from my class got into an argument with the substitute teacher because she didn’t give her permission to go to the restroom. After listening to the unjust substitute I decided to stand up for my classmate. We were both sent to the principal’s office and had lunch detention. If I would have stayed out of the argument nothing would have happened to me. The U. S. plays a similar role here, if we provide help to other nations then their enemies might think we’re their allies and as a result they’ll become our enemies as well. Therefore it is more convenient to mind our own business and
