## page was renamed from StatistFallacies/lifeboatscenario
'''Fallacy:'''

"Your ideas fall apart in a disaster scenario, like when there aren't enough lifeboats on a sinking ship, or in an airplane disaster without enough parachutes, or the Donner Party choosing cannibalism to avoid starvation!"

'''Response:'''

In each case, the issue is resolved with clear property rights and contracts. If you are sailing on a ship, you want to know their lifeboat and flotation device situation. If you are flying in an airplane, you should know the parachute policy. In a free society, someone providing a service is liable for any injury or death and is obligated to take reasonable precautions. As a consumer, it is your responsibility to assess risks and make your own cost/benefit analysis. In circumstances where such matters may be outside your control, resource distribution is the responsibility of the resource owner, or a case of [[Homesteading|homesteading]] when there is no owner.

In situation where the options are choosing to suffer either death or injury versus committing a crime, the party committing the crime acknowledges the crime, and must be willing to face the consequences upon a return to normalcy. Whether it is a matter of simple trespass, such as running through private property to avoid an attacker, or an extreme situation such as choosing cannibalism over starvation, the same rule holds true. ([[LT]])


'''See also:''' Rothbard's [[Books/TheEthicsOfLiberty|The Ethics of Liberty]], chapter 20, "Lifeboat Situations".