“If there are forty thousand people in an area that can only support thirty thousand, it’s no kindness to bring in food from the outside to maintain them at forty thousand. That just guarantees that the famine will continue.”
“True. But all the same, it’s hard just to sit by and watch them starve.”
Ishmael rumbled volcanically. “Who said anything about sitting by and watching them starve? If you can move food in, you can also move people out, can’t you?”
“Yes, I suppose so.”
“Move the ten thousand out to some part of the world where there’s an abundance of food. Italy. Hawaii. Switzerland. Nebraska. Oregon. Wales.”
“I doubt if that’s an idea that would win you much support.”
“You’d rather exercise your philanthropy by maintaining forty thousand in a state of chronic starvation.”
“I’m afraid that’s the case.”
“So much for benevolence.”
“True. But all the same, it’s hard just to sit by and watch them starve.”
Ishmael rumbled volcanically. “Who said anything about sitting by and watching them starve? If you can move food in, you can also move people out, can’t you?”
“Yes, I suppose so.”
“Move the ten thousand out to some part of the world where there’s an abundance of food. Italy. Hawaii. Switzerland. Nebraska. Oregon. Wales.”
“I doubt if that’s an idea that would win you much support.”
“You’d rather exercise your philanthropy by maintaining forty thousand in a state of chronic starvation.”
“I’m afraid that’s the case.”
“So much for benevolence.”
Daniel Quinn’s Ishmael (1992)
