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Analysis Of Peter Singer's Solution To World Poverty

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Problems do not seem that serious when they are not directly related to us and world poverty is not an exception. There is a number of organizations trying to solve the problem and many solutions suggested by economists, philosophers and politicians. One of the solutions was described by a philosopher Peter Singer in his essay “The Solution to World Poverty”. He presented a model of society, where people donate all extra money they have (money spent on luxury) to those in need. However, a will to be better, to have more is in the human nature, so without an opportunity to compete and proper motivation to work more there will be a societal collapse.
To back up his argument, Peter Singer presents two hypothetical situations, in which a retired schoolteacher Dora and a man Bob face an ethical dilemma: the choice between human life and luxury. The first character, Dora, had an offer to gain $1000 if she convinces a boy to go with her to some strangers. She did so, but then realized how risky it could be for that boy and returned the money back. Bob got into a similar situation, except he earned the money by work (not by chance) and had no relation to a boy he could have saved …show more content…

However, no matter how many other flaws can be found in his arguments, what matters are people’s lives. We can pretend the issue is not related to us or discuss the problem day and night and take very little steps to solve it, but we cannot ignore the fact that we are, as a society, the only ones who can help suffering people. It may not be reasonable to blame us for their problems anyway or demand a great amount of our income from us, though voluntary charity is a good alternative decision. The only key thing here is that we can only solve the global issue together. Does not a chance that something you do not value that much can save somebody’s live make it worth to try? But this is another ethical question to

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