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.

Some research needs:

• Current information on the success / failure of the UN Millenium Development goals?
• Trends in Absolute poverty. Who's in deep, who is getting out and why.
• Evidence of effectiveness in anti-poverty programs for absolute poverty.
• Some searches into "against giving" arguments, not just libertarian arguments against government giving.
• This is an interesting website that has many statistics on poverty in the US. The site could act as a solid source of information for statistics in order to create the case of the poverty in the United States. [1] - Sophie Oswald