Pete Singer's Utilitarian Approach to World Poverty

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Recommended: Wealth and poverty in the world

Between now and tomorrow morning, UNICEF estimates that 22,000 children will die each day due to poverty. The day after tomorrow, 22,000 more children will die, as well as the next day and each subsequent day henceforth throughout 2013. Two million children die from preventable diseases such as pneumonia and diarrhea because they cannot afford or do not have access to proper healthcare services. 19 million children around the world remain unvaccinated. The number of human beings dying or suffering from hunger, malnourishment, lack of access to clean water, and preventable disease is staggering.
Approximately three billion people, nearly half of the world’s population, live on less than $2.50 a day. Over one billion people live in extreme poverty (less than $1.25 a day). 80 percent of the world lives on less than $10 a day. 1.6 billion people live without electricity, nearly one-quarter of the world population. In 2011, it was estimated that 165 million children under the age of five had a reduced rate of growth and development due to chronic malnutrition. 870 million worldwide do not have enough food to eat. More than one billion people lack access to clean drinking water and approximately 400 million of these individuals are children. The staggering poverty in certain corners of the world raises the question of whether or not affluent people in rich nations have a moral obligation to aid those in poor nations. The cost to rectify global poverty by offering basic education, clean water, reproductive health for women, and basic health and nutrition is estimated to be around $40 billion. Do we have a moral obligation to help the poor? Throughout this paper, I will present Peter Singer’s utilitarian approach to global poverty an...

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...significant moral importance. Yet, moral autonomy is morally significant and entails that individuals do not have a moral duty to fully devote themselves to the elimination of world poverty. Nonetheless, tradeoffs exist between working towards the elimination of poverty, which has the certainty of providing beneficial consequences, and choosing to pursue one’s personal interests, which has a lower but still significant chance of providing societal benefits. It is impossible to compare the societal positives of the results of pursuing one’s interests, as well as to the degree of the beneficial outcome. While Singer’s solution to world poverty is a valid, inherent flaws still exist within his argument.

Works Cited

Shah, Anup. “Poverty Facts and Stats.” Global Issues. 07 Jan. 2013. Web. 19 Nov. 2013. .

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