Peter Singer and Peter Unger argue that moral decency requires giving
away all one's “surplus” for the relief or prevention of
“absolute poverty,” because not doing so is analogous to
refusing to save a drowning child to avoid making one's clothes
muddy.
I argue that there is a crucial disanalogy between the two cases and,
moreover, that there are four independent moral objections to their
thesis: it is monomaniacal in ignoring the variety of morally worthy
ideals and elevating self-sacrificial aid to the global poor into the sole
ideal; it is misanthropic in its indifference to the happiness of those it
adjures to give; it is incompatible with integrity; it would have
disastrous effects for the poor if it were generally adopted. I argue that
genuine beneficence aims at creating or restoring the conditions that
enable its beneficiaries to become self-sufficient creators themselves —
creators of wealth and of meaningful and enjoyable lives. Small-scale
beneficence is necessary for moral goodness, but large-scale beneficence
is optional, so long as its absence is not due to a lack of regard for
those in need. The uncharitable person violates the neo-Lockean non-waste
proviso that we acquire or keep for ourselves and those we love as much,
but only as much, as we can use or invest meaningfully or enjoyably, now
or in the long run. But someone who invests all his resources in creating
something of worth leads a morally worthy life even if he reserves nothing
for large-scale charity. Both our capacity for beneficence, which bids us
stretch out a hand to those in need, and our capacity for creation, which
bids us reach for the stars, are important aspects of our humanity. The
Singer-Unger ideal advocates not genuine beneficence but the profligate
giving away of wealth to prolong lives, while failing to appreciate what
makes life worth living.I am grateful for
helpful comments on this paper from Ellen Frankel Paul, Larry White (who
commented on the paper at the 2005 conference of the Association for
Private Enterprise Education), David Blumenfeld, and Garrett Cullity
(whose comments from Australia were a wonderful example of voluntary
international aid to a stranger). I would also like to thank Georgia State
University, Bowling Green State University, and the Association for
Private Enterprise Education for inviting me to present this paper, and
the audiences at these presentations for their helpful discussion.
Finally, I would like to thank Harry Dolan for his expert copyediting,
which saved me from some embarrassing mistakes and
infelicities.