The article started out with the metaphor of “The earth is like a spaceship,” then it went on explaining how the earth is not like a spaceship at all. Hardin explained why the earth is more like a life boat. The rich countries are the people who are on the boat and the poor countries are the people in the water who didn’t have much luck. He went on by saying that every life boat has a certain capacity and if they wanted to survive they, not only, couldn’t go passed the capacity but even try to stay under the capacity limit. What he thinks they should do with the life boat is the same thing he thinks we should do with the earth’s resources. The way I understood him, he thinks it’s every survivor for his or herself.
His claim made a lot of sense. In fact, on some parts, I found myself agreeing with him. In his eyes we should not treat the poorer countries like a charity case, rather treat them like actual capable, intelligent human beings. It’s not the easiest subject to persuade, but I think his evidence really helped the reader understand why he stood by his claim.