Rhetorical Analysis Of What A Billionaire Should Give And What Should You?

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Whether it was the school I attended, the church I sat in, or the family that raised me, I have grown up with the notion that people should pursue excellence in everything they do and that laziness is no excuse for handouts. I believe that if a man, or woman, works hard in life then they should receive the benefits and profits of their hard work. I also believe that all human beings are created equal; however, that does not mean that all humans are necessarily worth the same. Peter Singer, a famous philanthropist, challenges these viewpoints in his article, What a Billionaire Should Give-and What Should You?. In the article, Singer examines some very interesting and compelling points about what a human life is worth and whether or not the “fair …show more content…

Singer believes that giving your fair share is never enough because you could always give more (650). Singer rationalizes this viewpoint using his already controversial idea of everyone being equal in worth (650). To do this he gives the audience a simple analogy. In his analogy he creates a scene where fifty children have fallen in a pond and are drowning (650). The audience is among forty nine adults that can “easily wade into the pond and rescue the children” (650). However, doing so would cause them various discomforts since they must dive into the cold, muddy water (650). He says that people who believe in the fair share approach, would be completely comfortable saving just one child and leaving all of the other children to be saved by someone else (650). But what happens when a third of the adults don’t want to mess up their new clothes and assume someone else will pick up their slack (650)? The fair share approach would have a third of the children dying a slow death (650). Now, for the people that did their fair share, they would justifiably be furious at those who stood by and did nothing (650). However, they are not justified in their actions by letting the other children die since they could have easily waded out again and saved them (Singer