Singer’s Practical Ethics Essay -- Papers Poverty Theory

Singer’s Practical Ethics St. Augustine once stated, â€Å"The superfluities of the rich are the necessities of the poor. When you possess in excess, you possess what belongs to the poor† (Church 3). This quotation expresses that the less fortunate in our world deserve to own a part of all the excess luxuries that are owned by the more wealthy people. Therefore, anything beyond the necessities of life can be considered something that the poor should retain. This idea is very similar to that of Peter Singer, who contends that the injustice of people who live in abundance while others starve is morally inexcusable. He argues that anyone who is able to aid the poor ought to donate in order to help the crisis of world poverty and similar endeavors. Singer explains that if one is already living comfortably, the act of acquiring luxuries to increase pleasure does not entail the same moral importance as saving someone’s life. Since he is a utilitarian, he judges whether acts are right or wrong based on the consequences the action brings. Therefore, if the consequence of the wealthy people’s failure to donate money is that another poor person dies, then that is just as bad as killing them, since they are consciously letting them die. In his work, Practical Ethics, Singer offers his thoughts about one’s obligations to world poverty and suggests what must be done to fix this dilemma. He questions whether it is ethical for people to live a life of luxury while they allow others to barely survive, or even die. In the world today, there are two extremes of world poverty: absolute affluence and absolute poverty. The basic definition ... ...h is distributed in the world. There is no reason why some people should lead such luxurious lives, while worrying about nonessential lavishness, as opposed to one’s survival like those in absolute poverty do. As people who live in a country of absolute affluence, we are all in the situation where we can choose between sacrificing our luxuries to save a child versus living in excess and allowing the poor to die. What if everything that we take for granted was removed from our lives? We would then live day to day as a means to survive, and only then would we truly understand the lives of those in absolute poverty. BIBLIOGRAPHY Denny, Father Jack. â€Å"The Church in Action.† Received in Theology class on April 1, 2004. Singer, Peter. Practical Ethics. 2nd Edition. Cambridge University Press, 1993.