World Poverty
The world is a place where many people both of whom have their own beliefs. This therefore makes it hard for some people to be able to do things in a similar way as compared to others. The society shapes the culture and behaviors of human beings, it is therefore very hard to be able to convince a person to do something simply because according to the person, the things that he or she is doing, thinks they are actually right according to the dictates of his or her society. People from different countries would therefore conduct their activities differently according to their moral beliefs and dictates. On the other hand, human beings are created in such a way that they tend to love themselves more as compared to other people. A human being may therefore spend money carelessly guaranteed he or she made the money through hard work. The person may therefore not think about poor people and the sick who cannot be able to cater for their needs due to poverty.
According to Singer, most human beings are very quick to judge the actions of other people, forgetting that they, themselves are not as better as the people they are judging. For instance, in Dora’s story, Singer says that Dora’s actions may be similar to that of the rich American families which would spend their money on luxurious things other than helping the poor (Singer, n.p). Most people may therefore see the wrong in what Dora did, but justify what the rich American families are doing. Moreover, we as the people, may also judge Dora’s actions, when we have never even decided to donate money in order to save the poor. People are therefore focused on ways through which they can be able to enrich themselves, thus forgetting about the poor who are suffering.
In Bob’s story, Bob decides to save his car instead of saving the life of a child, when he had the total opportunity of saving the child’s life. Bob therefore represents the type of people who are determined to maintain their riches even though maintaining their riches may be the reason as to why most people tend to die in the world due to poverty and the lack of medical aid. Singer therefore advocates for people to offer their support to the needy, through sending money to overseas organizations which help in supporting the poor (Singer, n.p). Singer therefore wants each and every person to provide support to such organizations, and help them in being able to cater for the needs of the poor. We as human beings should therefore cut on our expenses, in order to be able to save the lives of the poor.
Singer’s solution is however different from Hardin’s, simply because, Hardin does not advocate for other people to support the needy. According to Hardin, people are supposed to prepare themselves in order to be able to solve their problems particularly in situations when things get out of hand. For instance, in the story of a lifeboat with a capacity of 60 people with 50 people on board, whereas one hundred people are in the ocean and they are asking for help. Hardin advises us not to allow anyone aboard the boat. This therefore means that each person should be able to cater for his or her needs regardless of where he or she is from (Hardin, n.p). This is so because, if we decide to allow ten people onto the boat, which criteria should we use to choose those who should board the boat. Secondly, if we allow everybody aboard the boat, then this means that the boat will capsize and all of us will drown in the ocean.
In the above scenario, Hardin therefore advocates for people to prepare themselves for the worst situations. This is because, if one offers to support the poor, which criteria will he or she use in order to be able to choose the number to support. In addition, if one therefore decides to support every person who is poor then it means that the person will end up being poor. Hardin also talks about the number of rich and poor countries in the world. Two thirds of the countries in the world are poor, whereas a third of them are rich (Hardin, n.p). Poor countries have not been able to control their population growth, moreover, they have not also been able to save food in case of drought. This therefore makes such countries to be vulnerable to problems, due to the lack of proper planning. On the other hand, rich countries have come up with population growth measures, which have enabled the countries to be able to maintain their population growth. In addition, they have also set aside caution money, hence being able to cater for their citizens in case of a disaster.
Singer’s solution and Hardin’s solutions are therefore very different, since both of the solutions are moving in separate directions. Hardin seems to be in total disagreement with Singer’s solution, as he says that if we decide to help the needy who constitute a huge population of the world, then we are likely to become as poor as them (Hardin, n.p). Singer on the other hand, believes that it is only we, who are in a better position to help the needy, thus we should be able to support them. This is because, if we decide to donate money, then we could be able to save many lives in the world.
According to my point of view, I believe that we are supposed to help the needy. This is consequently because it is not their choice to be in such a situation. For instance, a child who is born in a hunger stricken area, cannot be blamed for the lack of proper planning. This is consequently because the child found itself in such a situation after it was born. Moreover, some countries in the world have been hit by wars, for example in Syria, a country which does not have a stable government, its citizens cannot be able to live peacefully due to the frequent attacks that the country faces on a daily basis.
We are therefore supposed to support overseas organizations through donating the amounts of money that we can be able to afford. In addition, we are also supposed to minimize our spending in order to be able to help those who are suffering. Most people tend to earn so much money, that they would rather buy expensive cars which would end up being auctioned by the banks, due to the debts owed to the bank. We should therefore think of how we can better the lives of those who are suffering, hence making the world a better place.
Work Cited
Peter Singer. The Singer Solution to World Poverty. The New York Times. 1999.
Garrett Hardin. Lifeboat Ethics: the Case against Helping the Poor.
