ETHICS AND GLOBAL POVERTY

Cats and Kittens. Digital image. Orange County Humane Society. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Apr. 2016. <http://ochumanesociety.com/dogs---cats-for-

adoption/available-pets/cats-and-kittens.html>.

Hahaha. Digital image. A Voice For Men. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Apr. 2016. <http://forums.avoiceformen.com/showthread.php?15175-philosophy-based-memes>.

One Does Not Simply Pass a Philosophy Exam without Help. Digital image.Quickmeme. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Apr. 2016. <http://www.quickmeme.com/LOTR>.

ETHICS AND GLOBAL POVERTY

The Pond Analogy

Digital image. The Issue of World Poverty. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Apr. 2016. <https://sites.google.com/site/worldhunger94/>.

ETHICS AND GLOBAL POVERTY

The Rule of Easy Rescue: If it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we have a moral obligation to do it.

ETHICS AND GLOBAL POVERTY

• The Poverty Line: $1.90/day (what you could get with $1.90 in the U.S.)

• 702,000,000 people currently live in poverty (~10%)

THE STATS

Development Goals in an Era of Developmental Change. Rep. Washington: International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank, 2015. Print.

• Approximately one-fifth of all children under five remain undernourished.

Singer’s Train Analogy

High-speed Trains. Digital image. Eurail. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Apr. 2016. <http://www.eurail.com/europe-by-train/high-speed-trains>.

Singer is offering an argument by parallel reasoning

“You conclude that X is the right thing to do in situation A. Situation A is analogous to Situation B. Therefore, on pain of inconsistency, you should draw the same conclusion about B as you do about A (i.e., that X is the right thing to do in B).”

“Intuitively, the right thing to do in the the pond scenario is to give up some of your possessions in order to save the child’s life. The pond scenario is analogous to the problem of global poverty. Therefore, you should give up some of your possessions in order to save the life of a child living in poverty.”

Singer is offering an argument by parallel reasoning

“Intuitively, the right thing to do in the the train scenario is to give up your expensive car in order to save the child. The train scenario is analogous to the problem of global poverty. Therefore, you should give up your expensive possessions in order to save the live’s of children living in poverty.”

Singer is offering an argument by parallel reasoning

ETHICS AND GLOBAL POVERTY

Singer’s Conclusion: “...I can see no escape from the conclusion that each one of us with wealth surplus to his or her essential needs should be giving most of it to help people suffering from poverty so dire as to be life-threatening...whatever money you’re spending on luxuries, not necessities, should be given away.

Reasons for Concern

• Are the pond and train analogies sufficiently analogous to the actual situation we find ourselves in?

• “No,” some argue. There are millions of children that need saving, not just one. Trying to save all of them in the way Singer suggests is too demanding -- it would make our lives very difficult. The demandingness objection.

Objections to Humanitarian Aid in General

• Humanitarian aid makes the beneficiaries dependent. They never learn to become self-sufficient.

• Humanitarian aid only addresses the surface problems, not the core problems that create global poverty.

• Humanitarian aid hurts local economies.

• Humanitarian aid threatens to make the world unstable (e.g., over-crowding, lack of resources for all people to live comfortably, etc.)

• Humanitarian aid is ineffective and people are unmotivated.

Antidotes

• Working together. If people work together, there is less of a burden on the individual. Also, research shows that knowledge of community efforts to work towards a goal increase motivation to participate.

• Educating locals allows the country to become less dependent (“give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day; teach a man to fish, he’ll eat for a lifetime”).

• Improving well-being may still be worthwhile, even if it doesn’t solve the root problems.

Antidotes

Global poverty is decreasing.

Development Goals in an Era of Developmental Change. Rep. Washington: International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank, 2015. Print.

ETHICS AND GLOBAL POVERTY

For many people, the question is not whether we should help but how we should help.

http://www.thelifeyoucansave.org/

http://www.thelifeyoucansave.org/