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As the creators of their economy, human beings must fix where it is broken for those who are poor. Nelson Mandela described this when he said, “Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings” (Mandela). The writers of “Life Boat Ethics” and “A Modest Proposal”, Johnathan Swift and Garrett Hardin, take on the task of forming a solution to helping improve impoverished countries. Swift has an overly optimistic view, whereas Hardin has an unrealistic but applicable approach; however, both writers agree that we simply cannot help everyone and choices must be made concerning the risk of depleted resources, the threat of famine and over population.
In their
Swift believes that the Irish women do not have a sense of self-worth and pride. Due to this the women tend to have children out of wedlock without much support. This usually leads to poverty for their families. Swift believes that “curing the Expenciveness of Pride, Vanity, Idleness, and Gaming in our Women”(Swift 389) will help them learn to make better relationship decisions and the need for outside support will be diminished along with the number of children born into poverty. However, Swift doesn’t highlight how this message will be relayed to women. This idea is teetering on a moral and ethical line. Hardin develops a different solution. He concludes that citizens in poorer countries take the amount of land available for granted. He states that, “one of the major tasks of education today should be the creation of such an acute awareness of the dangers of the commons” (179). Hardin considers the fact that citizens do not see the danger in what overpopulation can do to their land in the long run. Hardin deems it important that well off countries educate the citizens on what happens to land after it has been overworked and ruined by prolonged
Swift supports Puchner’s theme of a lack of individuality which conveys how humans are losing their humanity by using Ireland’s economic issue which forces the poor to conform to the idea of selling their babies. Swift’s story, “A Modest Proposal”, is intriguing due to the fact that he uses Irelands misfortune to suggest a way to bounce back from this economic crisis which so happens to be eating kids from poor parents who couldn’t afford to raise it. In “A Modest Proposal” Swift states that “I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for Landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the Parents, seem to have the best Title to the Children” (Swift 33). For Swift growing up in Ireland, he
According to a memorable part of the inscription on the Statue of Liberty, With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” Consequently, America invited immigrants to come. Yet, there is a manmade concern, “immigration could account for all the yearly increase in population. Should we not at least ask if that is what we want (Hardin, 1974)?” Well! The audacity in Garrett Hardin’s 1974 essay, “Lifeboat Ethics: The Case against Helping the Poor” is to ingeniously imply concern about the harm immigration causes, but in all actuality exposes the support of partiality to
The Australian philosopher Peter Singer, believes that when we refuse to help end world hunger, we become murderers. He believes that it is a moral obligation as Americans who live comfortable lives, to help “the worlds poor” (Singer 1). It is wrong to continue to live a luxurious life, when we know that others are fighting for the mere chance to survive. In Peter Singer’s “The Singer Solution to World Poverty,” he compares us Americans to two fictitious characters Dora and Bob, due to the fact that we as Dora and Bob chose luxuries over the chance to help people suffering from life-threatening poverty. Peter Singer compares us to a fictitious character from a Brazilian film called “Central Stations.”
the poor. In doing so Hardin asserts that helping the poor and the underdeveloped countries would put immense pressure on our natural resources and weaken the security of wealthy nations. Although harsh, I agree with Hardin that aiding the poor and underdeveloped countries is bad policy that will inevitably lead to further despair, overpopulation, environmental degradation, and mass immigration. In fact I believe we should stop all aid and close our borders lest we be overburdened and our “lifeboat”
In his 1972 essay “Famine, Affluence, and Poverty”, Peter Singer tackles what seems on the surface to be a fairly simple debacle. He opens his essay by discussing the lack of food, shelter, and medical care in East Bengal. It is a given that every human deserves, in the very least, food, a place to sleep, and basic medical care. Singer claims that the problems involving poverty around the world is not an inevitable problem. He alleges that if we all pitched in what we can, these problems could be abolished. But unfortunately many people do not want to give up what they have for the sake of others. For these people, Singer put forth his seemingly obvious argument. It goes as follows:
His solution is paradoxical in that eating children is beneficial for economic reasons, of which he lists in points of order with numerical calculations, yet raises further moral problems. Swift utilizes verbal irony in his writings to demonstrate a contradiction in his sarcastic proposal of eating children by dehumanizing certain people to achieve a constant expression of his own opinions. Swift’s proposal appears to be anything but “modest” as consuming children is irrational and absurd, adding to the sarcastic and humorous aspect of the work. He dehumanizes women by saying that they act as “breeders” and they can only pay for their children by “[getting] the value in scraps, by her lawful occupation of begging.” Rather than utilizing language on how parents should be able to have plentiful food, he states they “contribute to the feeding, and partly to the clothing, of many thousands.”
Pogge, Thomas Winfried Menko, and Keith Horton. "Famine, Affluence and Poverty." In Global ethics: seminal essays. St. Paul, MN: Paragon House, 2008. 1-14.
Hunger and poverty will always exist. Needy nations are stuck in a black hole, in which, there is no light at the end of the tunnel. This situation could be fixed, if the poor nations had assistance from those who could spare a few goods. Is it morally good for the better off nations to help or support those who are in need? Who benefits from this sponsorship in the long run? Poverty-stricken nations could seek relief, if the silk-stocking nations aid in supplying goods. Many of the moneyed nations are torn between helping or not, those who are less fortunate. Jonathan Swift and Garrett Hardin have two very different opinions on whether to aid those who were not born into riches. Swift uses a satire for the
Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal is an attempt to bring attention to horrible the condition in which the poor or destitute people in Ireland are living in. His argument that children of these improvised people should be sold to “the persons of quality and fortune” (A Modest Proposal) for consumption, is Swift’s gruesome way of saying you might as well eat the babies, if no one is going to actually try to fix the problems of the poor in Ireland.
In 1729, Jonathan Swift published a pamphlet called “A Modest Proposal”. It is a satirical piece that described a radical and humorous proposal to a very serious problem. The problem Swift was attacking was the poverty and state of destitution that Ireland was in at the time. Swift wanted to bring attention to the seriousness of the problem and does so by satirically proposing to eat the babies of poor families in order to rid Ireland of poverty. Clearly, this proposal is not to be taken seriously, but merely to prompt others to work to better the state of the nation. Swift hoped to reach not only the people of Ireland who he was calling to action, but the British, who were oppressing the poor. He writes with contempt for those who are oppressing the Irish and also dissatisfaction with the people in Ireland themselves to be oppressed.
In “A Modest Proposal,” Jonathan Swift writes of the poor men, women, and children of Dublin, Ireland crowding the streets due to the years of drought and crop failure. He estimates that 120,000 children are born each year and asks the question of how these people are to be provided for. Then he tells of his proposal. He states that 20,000 of the 120,000 may be reserved for breeding purposes, while the other 100,000 be sold to dine on. Swift offers several advantages to his proposal some being: the poor tenants will have something of value in their home, the wealth of the nation will greatly increase as well as the cost of caring for the child will be eliminated after a year, and eliminating the food shortages the nation is undergoing. The only counter argument he offers is that killing and eating those infants will decrease the population so much that it will make it easier for England to concur them. He finishes his proposal with a statement that he himself is not interested in making a profit since his own children are past the right age and his wife not being able to have any more children.
The issue is that there is a growing number of poor and starving women and children living on the streets of Ireland that are a burden to the public and the country. The context is that these homeless and starving women and children are left to fend for themselves on the streets. Jonathan Swift is making the argument from the point of a concerned citizen who has spent years among the poor in Ireland studying the situation and trying to come up with a solution. Johnathan Swift used the example that those who visit Ireland and see the streets crowded with women and children that are beggars conclude that Ireland is a very poor, overpopulated country full of beggars and that they look down upon their country that is in such poor shape. His bias is that as a citizen living in Ireland, he does not want to be looked down upon by other countries. His targeted audience seems to be the citizens of the country and those in higher up positions who ...
A famous quote that can be linked to this essay is as follows, “The poor were getting poorer and the rich were getting richer.” To refer to women, Swift uses the word ‘breeders.’ They were treated as someone that furthered mankind, rather than a provider. If the reader wasn’t aware that Swift was making a mockery of Ireland’s political system, the reader could possibly become disgusted with “A Modest Proposal.” If one examines the actual content of “A Modest Proposal” they can catch the tone of the story, utter disgust.
...erprivileged mothers who strive to take care of their children but do not have the resources to do so. Lastly, Swift states that for want of work, the children of the impoverished Irish “either turn thieves, or leave their dear native country, to fight for the Pretender in Spain, or sell themselves to Barbados.” Swift makes the reader feel sympathy towards the impoverished children who are forced to make a living for themselves by any means necessary at a young age. Swift’s use of gripping word choice to describe the living conditions of the impoverished Irish effectively puts both emphasis and pity on their situation while also making the reader despise those who do not care about the poor.
...s extreme poverty that we contribute to, then we are at least partially responsible for its alleviation. As a consequence, we do owe an effective and changing solution. In recognising responsibility we now need to find solutions and do our part to stop the phenomenon of poverty destroying more innocent lives. The question is now whether affluent states do have the ability to make those changes. Pogge, whilst continually advocating minor changes and simple solutions in the two papers, does not actually suggest the mechanisms of any. As a consequence, more thought needs to be given to the possible solutions that can alleviate global poverty and eliminate our debt to the poor. This however, does not justify continued imposition of the problem. Just like if a builder is incapable of fixing leak he would hire help, so too must society look to find an adequate solution.