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... productive lives as the rest of us. The root cause of their suffering is their abysmal social starting position. The fact of this testifies that we are all the same, we are all a common humanity, a single species. (Isbister 26).
Due to this relationship, this species connection that we share with the rest of the world, we, as the more privileged group, have a moral responsibility to advance the lot of the less privileged. (Isbister 26). In regards to the statement made by John Isbister, our moral responsibility, or lack of it, is determined by the decisions we make. Peter Singer has said, The decisions and procedures of human beings can prevent this kind of suffering. Unhappily, human beings have not made the necessary decisions. Studies have shown that for a mere fraction of a percent of the income of the wealthiest countries, poverty could be immensely reduced, if not eliminated.
These contributions would increase disease prevention and treatment, and result in the saved lives of around eight million people each year. However, embarrassingly, these actions have yet to be taken. The question is not whether these developed countries can afford to contribute their equitable share, but whether they will make the elimination of the worlds extreme poverty a priority. As for the United States, the most wealthy and triumphant country in the history of the world, global poverty reduction has not been a priority. However, if the US had its proportional share of these deaths, poverty would kill some 820, 000 of its citizens per year more each month than were killed during the Vietnam. What is to explain, then, the inability of developed countries to look upon global poverty reduction as a priority?
If the governments of these countries are doing nothing their citizens, nonetheless, have no innocence granted unto them to also just do nothing. As citizens of a great democracy, it is our duty to use our privileged positions to support the changes in public policy that are needed. This statement urges the citizens of developed countries, particularly citizens of the United States, to use their individual freedoms to try and better the government. As individuals, we have the power to transform the course of history for the suffering people of this world. Some people do not believe that their personal contributions will make any significant difference. Certainly all of us cannot make even close to the enormous donation that Bill Gates has made in the past a donation of more than 20 billion dollars that was directed essentially towards international public health.
President Bush, ironically president of the US (one of the countries whose contributions are among the least) spoke in a graduation ceremony in which he told the graduates: you must do the acting every life you help proves that every life might be improved. The actual proves the probable, and hope is the beginning of change. This remark is directed towards all of us. World poverty can, in fact, be vanquished it all depends on how many of us try to defeat it and how many of us regard it as essential. World hunger is not a vital matter, if importance is measured subjectively, by how much and how many of the unaffected care about it. (Isbister 26) Mostly all of us, who believe that our prospective small contributions will be meaningless, are only thinking this way on the belief that we are the only ones helping that no one else is doing anything. Since no one else is doing anything, then why should we?
Peter Singer describes that one feels less guilty about doing nothing if one can point to others, similarly placed, who have also done nothing. If everyone were to consider this way for every situation the principles of this world would be in danger. Think about every situation in which a person may lose their life: a car accident, choking to death, drowning, etc. Do morally decent people just sit around and watch somebody choke to death, or even drown?
Absolutely not if they are not able to provide help themselves, they at least find someone who can. How then can we, as morally decent people, not act on this horrible and profound poverty that is killing thousands each day? We are simply deciding to act innocent to seem oblivious to the entire situation. The privileged are turning their backs. Most people are largely oblivious to the fate of the worlds majority and to their own responsibility for that fate. (Isbister 27).
There are simply no excuses for our actions, or lack of them. The reasons behind every individual persons actions will never be known. On the other hand, in general, perhaps the rich avoid grappling with the inequity on the planet and their responsibility for it because a full understanding would seriously threaten the sense they have on themselves. (Isbister 27). Another thought that we may have to justify our actions is brought about by the fact that we cannot see the actual person whom we may help. Since this poverty is so geographically far away from us, we have no grasp on the actual condition that these children are living in, let alone who they are.
Most people care deeply about their immediate family beyond that, the ties are weaker not absent, but weaker. (Isbister 239). This statement implies that the more distant the person, whether emotionally or physically, the less chance there is that the person is considered to be important. to consign a child to death standing right in front of you takes a chilling kind of mercilessness; it is much easier to ignore children you will never meet. These justifications for our lack of action are simply what they are excuses. In Peter Ungers book, Living High and Letting Die: Our Illusion of Innocence, he portrays a man who uses excuses much like these to let a child die.
To paraphrase the story: Bob has invested all of his money into one of the worlds few mint-condition Bugatti automobiles. He decides that once he plans to retire, the value of the car will appreciate at over 20 %, and that a plentiful retirement will be guaranteed. Nevertheless, one day while driving his Bugatti, he sees a shiny object. To see what it may be, he parks his car on a train track and walks to see what the object is. He finds that the object is a switch that can change the way of the train.
He also notices that there is a young child trapped on the other track. Bob knows that he has two options: he can either change the switches setting and save the child, or he can leave it the way it is and save his Bugatti his retirement. Arguing his conscience, Bob chooses the second option killing the child, but ensuring his comfortable retirement. Bob surely must have thought how unlucky a situation he was placed in a situation where he was to choose between saving the life of a child and the loss of his whole savings.
Bob was not unlucky at all. We are all in that identical situation. Arguments that debate our situation to be completely different than Bobs are arguments of people who do not want to face reality. People who choose not to care. The concept of moral accountability is a responsibility [that is] recognized by most ethical and religious systems. (Isbister 26). This moral responsibility is instilled in each and every one of us.
The end of global poverty lies within us all. Poverty can be alleviated and will be if enough people decide to live a morally decent life. Sakiko Fukuda-Parr and Jeffrey D. Sachs have written an article in the Los Angeles Times that is titled: If we cared to, we could defeat world poverty. Also, Peter Singer has stated that if it is in our power not to let something bad happen, without sacrificing anything of comparable moral significance, we ought then, morally, to do it. Therefore, it all depends solely on how much we care.
As stated in the beginning, we are all more vastly privileged than half the world solely based on the fact that we are literate. What could possibly be greater than sharing our privileges? Happiness is feeling wanted; feeling needed. It is greatly arguable that the majority of the worlds population wants our help they desperately need our help. For individuals who already have all the earthly possessions could there be a better way to give meaning to immeasurable wealth? Eventually, the following goal stated by John Isbister is not unreasonable; moreover it provides hope for the future: As we embark upon a new century, we can hope that the next hundred years will witness the cooperation of rich countries with poor and rich people with poor people so that the scourge of want on a global scale will finally be eliminated.
When one reflects upon the incredible social changes that marked the twentieth century, it is surely not outrageous to hope and even plan that the twenty-first will bring us this one improvement. It is time to make certain that every baby born on this planet has a fair chance at a decent, comfortable, and long life. (Isbister 20). I think that the citizens of wealthy countries need to own up to their responsibility in order not to create the conditions for poverty so perfectly described by Isbister. If this goal is to be met, the cooperation of everyone is needed. It does not matter how small a contribution may seem to be, it is still just that: a contribution, a gift to another human being, and perhaps a childs life. In the time it takes to read this paper, approximately fifteen minutes, over 300 children have lost their lives.
Small people who could have been saved if only everyone helped. Bibliography Isbister, John. (2003). Promises not kept: Poverty and betrayal of Third World development, sixth edition.
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