Famine, Affluence, and Morality

119 Pages·2015·0.7 MB·English

by  Peter Singer

F a m i n e
,
aFFluence
,
and
morality

F a m i n e
,
aFFluence
,
and
morality
P S
eter inger
1
1
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© Peter Singer 2016
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Singer, Peter, 1946- author.
Famine, affluence, and morality / Peter Singer.
pages cm
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-19-021920-8 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Humanitarianism. 2. Famines—Moral and ethical aspects.
3. Poverty—Moral and ethical aspects. 4. Suffering—Moral and
ethical aspects. 5. Wealth—Moral and ethical aspects. I. Title.
BJ1475.3.S56 2015
170—dc23 2015005676
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Typeset in Miller Text Font
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
contents
Foreword—Bill and Melinda Gates vii
PreFace—Peter Singer ix
acknowledgments xxxi
Famine, aFFluence, and morality 1
the singer solution to w orld Poverty 33
what should a Billionaire give—
and what should y ou? 51

Foreword
t
he world has improved dramatically in
the more than forty years that have
passed since Singer wrote “Famine,
Affluence, and Morality.” The propor-
tion of the world’s population living in ex-
treme poverty today is less than half what it was
then, and the proportion of children who die
before their fifth birthday has plunged even
more. In 1960, almost 20 percent of the world’s
children died before their fifth birthday. By
1990, it was around 10 percent, and now it’s
closer to 5 percent.
But 5 percent is still too many—on the
order of 6.3 million child deaths a year. Most
of these deaths are the result of conditions
vii
like diarrhea, pneumonia, or malaria that we
know how to prevent or cure. Nevertheless,
the reduction in child deaths is encouraging.
It shows that aid does work and refutes the
damaging myth that foreign aid does no good.
Singer’s work argues that we can work
together to prevent very bad things from
happening—like the deaths of children. The
evidence for this claim is much stronger now
than it was in 1972. Fortunately, more and
more people are seeing that this is the case,
and many of them are also taking action. You
might suggest that Singer’s article was ahead
of its time when it was originally published.
But perhaps it’s time has now come.
—Bill and Melinda Gates, co-chairs,
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
viii · Foreword
PreFace
F
“ amine, Affluence, and Morality”
was written at the height of the
refugee crisis brought about by
military repression in what was
then East Pakistan. Nine million people fled
across the border into India, where they strug-
gled to survive in refugee camps. With the ben-
efit of hindsight, we can see the crisis as a
pivotal stage in the emergence of Bangladesh
as an independent nation, but at the time that
fortunate outcome seemed improbable, whereas
the immense number of people in peril was ap-
parent. I used the dire emergency as a spring-
board for my argument that people in affluent
nations should be doing much more to help
ix