Peter Singer’s Solution to World Poverty Essay

How can we help people in need, and become better human beings? How can it be that we have money for new cars, houses and vacations, but when UNICEF or some other kind of healthcare organization ask us for just 2 dollars, we turn them down right away? In the article â€Å"Solution to world poverty† Peter Singer gives some of his suggestions on how to help others, and become better persons. Singer tells a story about a man named Bob. Bob just bought himself a new car. The car he bought is one of the most expensive cars you can get. A classic Volkswagen Bugatti. He then has to make a choice. He either has to let his car get destroyed and save the life of a child or save the car and let the child get killed. He chose to save the car. The other story comes from a Brazilian film, a woman called Dora, all she has to leave a homeless nine years old boy to a family that will adopt him in order to make a thousand dollars. Dora delivers the boy into his new family, but she is told that the boy was too old for adoption and he would be killed for organs used in transplantation. To save the boy, Dora decides to take the boy back. In fact Dora would like to save the boy because she has the direct contact with him, but for Bob, he never ever see this kid before, they have no relationship or any contact at all. But what is luxury? Money can be divided into two categories. â€Å"Need to have† and â€Å"Nice to have†. Food is something you need to have, clothes is something you need to have, but a vacation is just nice to have. â€Å"Nice to have â€Å" is just a luxury. I have just used 300 dollars on a new Xbox, but instead of using 300 dollars on this machine, I could have donated the money to the research of cancer. I would not mind giving the 300 dollars to some kind of healthcare organization, but now when I have the Xbox at my home, I say to myself that â€Å"it’s too late†, but in reality it’s not. All I have to do is return the Xbox, and give the money to the organization, but I know I won’t. Singer uses the stories to let himself into the conscience of his readers. Singer says: â€Å"If you think that is was very wrong of Bob not to throw the switch that would have diverted the train and saved the child’s life, then it is hard to see how you could deny that it is also very wrong not to send money to one of the organizations listed above.† Singer â€Å"blames me† for delaying the cure of cancer, when I bought that Xbox, instead of donating the money. I’m sure that the most of people, who have read this article, would think about the subject â€Å"donating† without doing anything more than think about it. Singers article is provoking, and you feel bad after you have read it, and maybe that’s the thing we need. What about people, how would it affect them? Most people might become more humane. The concept of donating would be difficult for the first couple of years, but slowly the public would start to get use to donating. After a few generations, it would be a part of the everyday life, around the world. Singer writes: â€Å"But he was not unlucky at all. We are all in that situation.† Singer is referring to the choice Bob had to make. Singer means that we all have to choose between life or death. Luxury or healthcare. If Peter Singer’s plan were to actually work, the amount of lives saved would be enormous. By donating the money that would otherwise would go to luxuries, organizations such as UNICEF would send the money overseas to the people who need it. With that money, they could buy food, water, and get roofs above their heads and many other products that are considered to be necessary . There is one problem, however: how much of the money donated would actually reach the people it was intended for? Some organizations take a percentage of the donated money to cover administrative costs. I have talked to a member of Green Peace, and he could not tell me how much of the money that was donated, actually goes to the area that needs it. If only one third of the donated money goes to the troubled area, it’s no wonder why the results is in so slow progress.