Aid to the Absolutely Poor

Return to Ethics

Do we have an obligation to alleviate the poverty of the absolutely poor? If so, what is the basis of that obligation? What does it commit us to? If not, why not.

• The Singer and Sachs readings in the next week or so will provide some basic arguments to consider and critique.
  • Singer's argument in a nutshell. [1]

• UN Millenium Development Goals (and critics):

• Facts and figures detailing the success/failures of the UN Millenium Development goals. [2]

• This is a table provided by the UN which shows development on each of the goals as of 2015. Very helpful for seeing relative progress. [3]

• An article in US News that summarizes and links to a study that argues that there has been no statistically significant evidence the the progress of the UN Millennium Goals had any real impact on improving the development process [4]

• The UN Development Goals report discusses what has been successful and what areas need more work in order to achieve the millennium goals [5]

Poverty and Intersectionality:

• Here is an article on that reflects on poverty, education, gender and the boundaries of the Millennium Development Goals as well as the general intersectionality of the issues involved [6]- Laura Marck

Background Information:

• Graphs and data on world poverty [7] Some great historical perspectives.

• This report is a little lengthy but offers great insight into how some of the data is collected on poverty [8]. -Abraham Lopez

• World hunger and poverty facts. This website discusses general statistics on malnourishment and it's connection with poverty. [9] -Isabel Barichievich

More on Singer's arguments:

• A critic of Singer's argument on our moral obligation to aiding the absolute poor by John Kekes. [10] This should be the right article. It's hosted by Cambridge, so it should stick around for a while.

• A critic of Kekes argument by Keith Horton. [11]

• Evidence of effectiveness in anti-poverty programs for absolute poverty.
  • This New York Times article highlights some of the most effective anti-poverty programs globally and how they produce such great results. [12]

• For and Against Giving?

• This article gives some ethical arguments both for and against giving aid. It touches on issues of rights, fairness, justice, and utility. [13]

• This article may be helpful as it gives an overview defining absolute poverty and the goals of fighting poverty through different methods of taxation along with comparing wealth of the richest 1 percent to the people who are in absolute poverty. [14]

• This is pretty long but there are some really constructive ideas proposed as to what America's role in global poverty is. A lot of times with these issues, they are quick to be pointed out but instead, this talks about how to take action. [15]

• This article focuses on two arguments against aid: the idea that we can't afford aid and that it's hardly an act of generosity. [16]

• This is an article against giving and plays a good devil's advocate for those who are for wealth distribution. It makes claims on why we shouldn't donate to charity with many supporting examples. [17]

• This article provides an interesting perspective on how aid programs in themselves don't directly help to eliminate extreme poverty and what should be done instead. [18] -Sabrina Williams

Unites states history and current contributions

• Here is a history on what the US has contributed in aid money in the past, what this has accomplished, and what their current goals are [19]

• These articles describe why people give and explore the demographics of giving in the United States. [20] -Justin Wiens

[21]

• U.S. Census Bureau gives a ton of information about poverty in the United States. This is the page after searching poverty. [22]

• Tito Howell: Here is an article on budget cuts of aid for the poor in USA and the belief that private funding will not fill the gap. [23]

• This is a letter written by Bill and Melinda Gates to Warren Buffett on his contribution to their foundation and what has been done with that money and how well it has been used. [24] -Macklin Ohnemus

Happiness

• This article describes the amount of income required to achieve happiness across the US. -Blair Coziahr

• This is another article for papers in support of giving aid and giving in general, which examines a link between the act of giving and activity in our brain's pleasure center- showing that aid can make both the giver and recipient happier. -Amy Wall

Connection between Governments of Poor Countries and Aid:

• This article explains how donors and recipients must work together to reinvent governments for poor countries, with the understanding that these new governments may not resemble those of rich countries. [25]

Are Nonprofits the most effective way to solve global poverty? How do you form an effective nonprofit?

• This article talks about the characteristics common to a successful nonprofit. [26] -Sophie Anton

Potential solution to solving extreme poverty: An interesting article on measuring poverty and an author's potential solution to fixing it. [27]-Michael Pham

An article showing that Norway really is having a problem with poverty, contrary to other beliefs and what is presented in the articles from Monday. https://borgenproject.org/look-poverty-norway/

This article is a counterargument to aspect's of Singer's argument [28] -Chelsey Hand

Emotional/psychological perspectives:

Additional Singer perspective: http://www.newsweek.com/charity-psychology-giving-82369 - Abbey Sicuro

A different perspective that isolates WHY people give - people with and without luxuries and why people without luxuries give- what really is the motive? From this comparison, it could be empathy http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/the_poor_give_more

Serena Carmona-Hester: This article examines the role of one's identity in determining whether and how much one gives http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.569.4421&rep=rep1&type=pdf

This article discusses the facts and figures of the most corrupt countries keeping aid money. [29] -sidni butler

Kate Lester: This is an interesting article dividing up some of the trivial things we consume that cost us millions of dollars. This contributes to my question of how lifestyle changes can also aid those in absolute poverty, rather than just giving money. Our industries, especially the meat industry which uses land space that could be used to grow other food stuffs that requires less land space, utilize too many resources which could be allocated to help a greater number. http://www.globalissues.org/issue/235/consumption-and-consumerism

Antonio Fraga: This article talks about how education is an effective force to combat poverty. Funding in education, and education in general helps those in poverty improve their lives in a variety of aspects. [30]

Ryan Gaske: This paper goes through the different theories and how these theories will effect your view on poverty: http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/aapam/unpan025673.pdf

Amanda Kiefer: This article examines global extreme poverty and discusses what is causing the trend of a decrease in poverty over time. https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty/

Sabrina Villanueva Avalos: Both of these websites provide facts regarding poverty in the U.S. and how we have worked towards improving the conditions. It also explores how far we've come and what types of aid has helped decrease the amount of those in poverty. The Out of Poverty Caucus website also provides a list of a lot of the anti-poverty organizations and their website links. http://outofpovertycaucus-lee.house.gov/resources/facts-and-figures http://www.chn.org/issues/the-war-on-poverty-50-years-later/

Sachs article mentions something about organizations that are more effective than others in regard to helping the poor. This research paper/thesis talks about how religious based organizations may not be as effective as secular organizations that give to the poor. This is a long read, but if you skim through, then you can see the main points [31] Here is an article talks about what giving to the poor does, yet it argues that giving money to the poor may not necessarily be effective to some people in the long run. Giving to those in absolute poverty may help with mental health. [32] --Ximena Hernandez