Preview

Ethics: Foreign Aid

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1816 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Ethics: Foreign Aid
Morality and ethical theories are attempts at guidelines that help define most every aspect of human nature. Understanding the differences between right and wrong has captured the minds of the worlds greatest thinkers for thousands of years. Even with so much effort being provided to the study of ethical behavior, we are still on unsound ground. Philosophers all over the globe continue to provide new ethical insights, and they determine their findings to be new standards for universally moral truths. One of many explored issues in ethics is that of Social Policy. Those who philosophically examine social policy review and make judgments on issues dealing with human welfare. With many philosophical inputs being provided to issues regarding social policy many disputes begin to arise. The debate between Peter Singer and James Shikwati over foreign aid and the distribution of aid to nations facing famine, shows a dichotomy in opinion with each man holding views on either side of this social political spectrum. While Singer and Shikwati both make great points in regards to their beliefs, there has to be something that can be done without arriving at either extremity. Foreign aid to countries in need should be limited, while making sure is is used for the right purposes. Rather than giving away an excessive amount of money and material goods, developed nations should be promoting the internal advancements of countries in need.
One dispute over social policy is that of foreign aid. It is not clearly known how much aid should be given, which method of delivery will produce the greatest outcome, or if t is even a moral obligation to provide foreign aid to countries facing famine. University of Princeton professor Peter Singer is a man who dedicates his life to famine relief. Singer believes that it is the duty of relatively affluent nations to keep foreign nations from every facing poverty (Sommers 188). It is necessary that we reevaluate our whole moral

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    PHI 208 Week 2 assignment

    • 1300 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In Peter Singer’s 1972 post titled “Famine, Affluence and Morality”, he conveys that wealthy nations, for example the United States, has an ethical duty to contribute much a lot more than we do with regards to worldwide assistance for famine relief and/or other disasters or calamities which may happen. In this document, I will describe Singers objective in his work and give his argument with regards to this problem. I will describe 3 counter-arguments to Singer’s view which he tackles, and after that reveal Singer’s reactions to those counter-arguments. I will explain Singer’s idea of marginal utility and also differentiate how it pertains to his argument. I will compare how the ideas of duty and charity alter in his suggested world. To conclude, I will provide my own reaction about this problem supporting singer’s argument. Should wealthier nations have a moral duty to relieve poorer nations if a disastrous event were to happen? I think that we all must contribute in times of need even if this means substantially modifying the way in which we live for the objective of assisting other people so long as it doesn't cause us to suffer.…

    • 1300 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    References: Peterson, M. (2004). Foreign Aid and the Moral Value of Freedom. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 7(3), 293-307. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/27504317…

    • 1156 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In his article “Famine, Affluence, and Morality,” Peter Singer outlines his argument for helping those in need in the global community. His main argument is that humans can stop suffering based on our moral decisions.1 Singer calls for the definition of ‘charity’ in our society to have moral implications. People should give governmental and privately. all need to give to charity and all at the same time.…

    • 662 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He uses a serious and stern tone to show how serious the matter of overseas poverty is and how easy it would be to solve this problem. His tone is offensive at times, directly accusing the reader of the death of children outside of our borders, in places such as Brazil. (Singer) Singer shifts the target of the essay to not just the individual reader, but to the American people as a whole. He accuses the American people, who most citizens feel are relatively generous and willing to help people in need, of extreme selfishness, which helps discredit his argument.…

    • 551 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Within his work, Peter Singer presents an argument that the people who live in affluent countries, the developed world, must drastically change their way of life and their conception of morality in order to help those in need. He begins by giving us an example of a case of famine, Bengal 1971, where people have been suffering and no one was doing anything to even try to alleviate the problem, this includes the government. I have summarized his arguments in the following ways: 1. Suffering caused by the lack of food, shelter, and medical care services is bad, and 2. If we can prevent something bad from happening, without sacrificing something…

    • 1132 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The issue of moral obligations towards the global poor has always been a contentious affair to be discussed for fear of problematic resolutions that may affect academia on a personal level. Peter Singer, most notable for his authorship of “Famine, Affluence, and Morality” and the drowning child analogy, presents the rather uncommon normative view that affluent persons are morally obligated to donate more resources to humanitarian causes than the present standard. Singer’s perspective on these seemingly radical moral ideals are confronted by many a pragmatic objection, ranging from entitlement principles to moral inequalities. Nevertheless, Singer builds his argumentative framework in regards to moral obligations to the global poor on solid…

    • 1239 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    When the topic of welfare is brought into an ethical discussion most individuals would surely see it as an ethical act that genuinely helps those in need. This is true to an extent, but is it possible that welfare does more harm than good? Most would argue that the hand out of money to those less fortunate is being socially responsible. The question that drives this ethical issue is where does social responsibility end and personal responsibility pick up? This question is difficult to answer because every family in need is in a different situation. Government benefits are supposed to be used as a crutch for families to get back on their feet, but about twenty percent of all families receiving welfare stay on the program for more than five years. {text:bibliography-mark} This is the base of ethical issues surrounding government assistance and social responsibility for the needy. Many individuals believe that receiving a government hand-out allows people to become satisfied with being on welfare. If programs like food stamps and welfare aren’t effective, they are essentially a black hole for the tax dollars of working Americans. There is no denying the fact that there are needy families out there who are so impoverished that they need aid, but it is nearly impossible to separate the abusers from the desperate. It is for this reason many arguments can be made for both sides of government assistance. The most common question is, how far should a government’s social responsibility stretch? The issuing of government benefits derived from tax dollars is a strong ethical dilemma that has both social and economical repercussions. {text:bibliography-mark}…

    • 1505 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Singer asks us to consider this argument. Suffering and death from lack of food, shelter, and medical care are bad. “If it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we ought, morally, to do it.. It is in our power to prevent suffering and death by giving money to causes such as famine relief. Therefore, we have a moral obligation to give money to causes such as famine relief. We should give and it is wrong not to give.…

    • 304 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    the issue of poverty by suggesting Americans give away most of their income to aid those in need. Singer believes that withholding income is the equivalence of letting a child starve to death. Therefore, Singer suggests the ethical thing to do to end world hunger is to give up everyday luxuries. Although donating a vast amount of money could help dying and starving children, Singer’s proposition is not only unrealistic but also too demanding for everyday Americans who have responsibilities of their own.…

    • 703 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The fact that we can afford to provide for ourselves even beyond our basic needs bring an important question. Is it then our duty to provide financial assistance to those who do not have enough to provide for their own basic needs? Peter Singer, in his piece, “Famine, Affluence, and Morality” would argue that we ought to prevent bad things from happening without sacrificing something of equal importance. Here is the argument Peter Singer presents to us in standard form:…

    • 1804 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the New York Times Article “ the Singer Solution to World Poverty” the author Peter Singer argues that there is no reason why Americans don’t donate money to the needy when they can afford countless of luxury that are not essential to the preservation of their lives and health. Singer pursue the audience with two different situations trying to motivate the reader to donate money instantly.…

    • 1062 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Geopolitics have played a huge role in humanitarian aid in the current century. Because humanitarian aid is largely sponsored by western countries it poses a huge problem in the form of a “parochial form of theorizing"1 that supports the interests of the richest countries of the world. For the purpose of this essay I will begin by examining the problems that have arisen in the most recent years of humanitarian aid assistance. This arises from conditional aid, whereby donor countries or organizations impose conditions in order for recipient countries to receive this aid. Followed by this is the secularization and polarization of the aid industry where organizations are constantly in competition for finite resources. Lastly the 21st century has seen foreign militaries carry out humanitarian aid missions which jeopardizes the neutrality and impartiality which is so essential in carrying out aid to anyone who is in need. Secondly this essay will look at how humanitarian aid has changed over time. For the purpose of this short essay I will look at the 1998 famine in North Korea whereby humanitarian aid was given, only under political concessions. Disguised as aid, the humanitarian assistance given to North Korea was used as a political tool that undermines the fundamental ideas of humanitarian aid.…

    • 2216 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    For Stiglitz, the American government has to intervene strongly to prevent the rich from preying on the poor by using their labour without proper compensation. In fact, according to the author, the rich should be held responsible for the welfare of the poor because their survival depends on the ninety-nine percent poor population. Without them, the products of the rich would lack markets and they would not have sufficient labour. If the situation is not addressed, Stiglitz suggests a revolution to kick out the elite government that serves as a committee of the ruling class since it does not exist to fulfil the wishes and the desires of the poor. On his part, Singer simply urges Americans to help each other because it is the morally upright thing to do. The help should be mutual and no person should be forced to do so. His focus is on helping the children who are dying of hunger. The rich should engage in corporate social responsibility by setting aside some funds to finance the programs aimed at helping the poor without…

    • 926 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    to help or not to help

    • 413 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Samaritan dilemma is a dilemma in the act of charity. This was proposed by James M Buchanan. According to this theory, when given charity, a person will act one of the two given ways: using the charity to improve their situation or look for charity as a means of survival. A similar situation arises when a country receives foreign aid. The donor country is faced with the Samaritan dilemma. Will the country receiving the foreign aid act in a way that will improve the situation or will it look at charity as a means of survival? Foreign aid is not always beneficial for developing countries. What is wrong with foreign aid? Studies in the last four decades have shown that the main objective of developmental aid has not been achieved. Of late, ‘development’ –the main goal of aid is notably become ‘sustainable development’ which is a broader concept than just development. In the case of sustainable development, the aid receiver has a bigger role to play than the donor. In such a case, the receivers had a greater responsibility to look after and the authority of the donors over their own aid declined. The poor outcome involved need not be because of conflicts, it can also arise given the preferences of individuals involved and the incentives generated by the donors. Besides this, there are a number o questions that has to be addressed before giving the aid such as: Why is the country poor, what kinds of reforms does it need, what kinds of investments it requires, who are the stake holders and how are they benefitted etc. All these questions will have to be considered by the donor before giving aid.…

    • 413 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Many people in the world today believe that rich countries have a responsibility to provide international aid for poor countries to help their citizen who may die from starving or diseases. In this essay, I intend to discuss the advantage and disadvantage of that and the related controversy.…

    • 376 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays

Related Topics