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What Should A Billionaire Give Peter Singer Summary

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Please help the children of this third world country by donating just one dollar a day. You can’t turn on the television without seeing a commercial asking you to donate to help feed the impoverished or to supply much needed medicine. In the article, “What Should a Billionaire Give – and What Should You?” the author attempts to make a point of giving money to charitable organizations, much like these commercials. Peter Singer’s article dives into the realm of philanthropy in order to aid the impoverished by appealing to logic through reasoning and statistics, and emotion by using examples throughout the writing. However, the author is discredited because of his ethics and controversial personal views from the past.
This article first appeared in The New York Times, which is targeted to an upscale readers three times more likely to have a postgraduate degree and twice as likely to make more than $100,000 per year. The author, Peter Singer, is an Australian born ethical philosopher with controversial views such as stating that infants with a handicap should be euthanized but is strongly against the death penalty. American …show more content…

He assumes that the billionaires are giving to ease their consciences or to generate favorable publicity. The author points out that David Kirkpatrick, a technology writer for Forbes Magazine, believes Gates’ turn to philanthropy was a result of the antitrust issues Microsoft had in the U.S. and European Union. Singer moves on to question whether there is an obligation for the wealthy to give, and if so, how much should they give. While some strongly believe the rich have worked hard for their money and, therefore, should be able to spend it as they please, others believe that “social capital” is responsible for 90 percent of what they earn. A flat 90 percent income tax for everyone is socialism which, in turn, has obvious negative

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