lifeboat ethics
A system of ethics based on "first come, first served" or "every man for himself"…A system of ethics based on "first come, first served" or "every man for himself" rather than the fair distribution of resources.
Meaning
1 senses(uncountable)A system of ethics based on "first come, first served" or "every man for himself" rather than the fair distribution of resources.
Origin
Proposed by the ecologist Garrett Hardin, who gave the example of a lifeboat that can holdProposed by the ecologist Garrett Hardin, who gave the example of a lifeboat that can hold 50 people but is surrounded by 100 swimmers.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Synonyms
1 synonymsWord family
1 related wordsLessons for this word
1 lessons- A1Countable and uncountable nouns — Because it can be uncountable
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.