Education and the Distribution Gap, Research Paper Example

Garrett Hardin compares the Earth to a spaceship.  This comparison is highly illogical, as a spaceship is a closed system where resources are limited and once used, non-renewable.  The Earth, in comparison, is a living organism, where life ebbs and flows and most resources, once used, are renewed.  The idea of lack is one that has been artificially imposed by governments who would like us to believe that “superior” people, from developed nations, are being threatened by hordes of third world immigrants.  The fact is that there is not a lack of resources, only an unfair system of dispersion.  Mahatma Gandhi once said “The world hold enough to satisfy everyone’s need but not everyone’s greed.” (Finn 2003)  Hardin uses the United States as a model for the ideal nation, where the inhabitants have all they need.  However, it is apparent that this is not the case.  The current education crisis can be used as an example. Garrett Hardin’s argument in “Life Boat Ethics” fails to adequately describe the true mechanics of resource shortage since the problem isn’t resource shortage, it is uneven resource distribution.

It seems like most people you ask would agree that their children’s education and feeding the poor is important, so why does the wealth maintain such an uneven distribution and seem to go everywhere except where we want it? “In the mid-1970s with the simultaneous launch of globalized “free trade” and the development of new computer and communications technologies corporations were able to escape from national limits and boundaries–and from any compulsion to keep sharing their profits with society’s less fortunate. With their enormous increase in wealth came more power and influence, including the power to buy and control most politicians. Governments were transformed from agents of wealth redistribution into the legislative branches of big business, devoted to helping the rich become richer at the expense of everyone else.” (Finn 2003)

Budget cuts across the nation have forced many schools to lay off teachers and workers.  In the end, students are crunched into classrooms of 40 or more students per teacher.  This situation seems highly unnecessary in a nation that can spend endless billions of dollars on foreign wars.  The problem is obviously not a lack of money, but in how the money is distributed.  It is sad when “Motorists encounter children at busy intersections begging for money to help save school programs threatened by government cutbacks.” (Finn 2003)  In Hardin’s essay, he ties his argument together by insisting that people are poor and hungry due to a lack of resources and money.  However, it is a sad fact that 400 billionaires own more wealth than the poorest two-and-a-half billion people.” (Finn 2003)

Uneven distribution is the underlying cause of both the lifeboat argument of Hardin’s essay and the problem regarding the overcrowding of public schools.  This is apparent from the amount of wasted food that is thrown away each day.  There may be countries where severe drought and famine have indeed created a situation where food is not able to be grown making them in need of aid from developed countries.  Countries like Guatemala, Panama, and Honduras, actually grow most of the tropical fruits that Americans enjoy in addition to food to feed every the people of the country.  They grow food for export, and countries like the United States enjoy the fruits of their labor, no pun intended.  If the land used to grow bananas for export was instead used by indigenous farmers to grow food just for their own people, then the food shortage would probably be over.  Hardin’s argument then begins to fall apart.  Without third world farmers it could be American’s that would be starving.

As for America, it is obvious that there is plenty of money to go around.  It is how it is dispersed that is the real issue.  In 2010, the base budget for the military under Mr. Obama was $663.8 billion dollars.  That is including “overseas contingency operations.” In stark contrast is the 2010 budget for education, which came in at $46.7 billion.  With almost half the budget set for military spending, housing, transportation, welfare, and education must grab the tidbits that are left.  Every school should be getting exactly the money it needs to build more classrooms and hire more teachers to end the problem of over-crowded classrooms.  News reports from across the country are coming out with stories of budget cuts, overcrowded class rooms, and too few teachers.  For example, NBC Los Angeles reported, “What happens when you strip $6 billion from California’s education system? You get classrooms that look like clown cars, overflowing with kids: Students sitting on the floor or standing in a corner. Kids sitting on filing cabinets. Three children sharing one desk.”   It seems sad that the entire state was short just $6 billion dollars.  That’s 1% of the military budget.  If every state in the U.S. got the $6 billion from the U.S. government, that would still only be $300 billion, still less than half of the military budget.

Hardin’s argument says that since the planet can’t feed everyone, then we must save ourselves and let nature take care of the others.  Unfortunately, it is not Mother Nature we need to be wary of.  The inadequate distribution of wealth is apparent for anyone with eyes to see.  The problem is the mega rich do not want to give up the life to which they have become accustomed.  Everyone wants to live the dream of the big house, big car, boat, and limitless credit cards.  However, it is this excess that can’t be sustained indefinitely.   If everyone were to willingly give up the excess to live simpler lives, then perhaps things would change.  Redistributing wealth is not an easy task, as it will take people voluntarily living and leading simpler lives and governments creating budgets that prioritize the education and needs of its citizens above foreign war.

References

Kleinbaum, Josh (September 21, 2009).  Overcrowded Classrooms About to Burst. NBC Los Angeles. Retrieved from: http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local-beat/LA-Classrooms-About-to-Burst-60018957.html

Finn, Ed (September 22, 2003).  All social and economic problems caused by an unfair distribution of wealth.  Canadian Center for Policy Awareness.  Retrieved from http://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/commentary/all-social-and-economic-problems-caused-unfair-distribution-wealth