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Famine Affluence And Morality Peter Singer Analysis

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In Peter Singer’s article entitled ‘Famine, Affluence, and Morality’, he discusses the topic of poverty in Bangladesh and goes on to talk about its causes and the ways in which it can be somewhat eliminated in Bangladesh. Singer puts forth a statement stating that if there is a way in which we can avoid a negative outcome in a situation, without sacrificing anything of similar moral value, then we are obligated to do just that. Another point he mentions is that people would feel less obligated to give money to a person in need if they were living in an area far away from that individual as opposed to being within the proximity of that person. In addition, Singer also believes that with the transportation methods at one’s disposal in this …show more content…

The problem that arises here has to do with the fact that by paying more, you might be more likely to put yourself in a financial crisis over time due to donating too much money. Another problem that humans have in regards to spending their money is that they choose to spend it on accessories for their own bodies instead of giving that money over to some organization in the world. In doing the latter, less people would go hungry worldwide, Singer believes. He then points to the topic of utilitarianism whereby humans strive to achieve the highest level of happiness in relation to misery when performing everyday actions. He then talks about how people could wear themselves out from overworking in order to satisfy the needs of others; this brings the point back to his earlier statement about choosing to prevent a bad outcome in a situation if nothing of similar moral significance is sacrificed. Singer then goes on to show that there are two main outcomes one can reach when it comes to donations. One would be the situation in which people would have to end up sacrificing things of similar moral value in order to satisfy the needs of the poor which would result in those people sinking down to the same financial level of the people they set out to save. The other outcome is

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