We see it, we hear about it, and some of us even live it. Unfortunately it's all around us; what is it? Poverty. Throughout the world, the vast majority of adults and children live in inhumane conditions. Many people have attempted to try to solve this problem, some have even been remotely successful. However, child poverty in particular is still a serious problem around the world. Peter Singer, a professor of bioethics at Princeton University, has proposed a theory on how to help solve poverty among children around the world. Singer's article titled "The Singer Solution to World Poverty" presents readers with imaginary and hypothetical situations to come to the conclusion that middle- and upper-class Americans who can afford it, should use their income only for basic necessities and sacrificing residual income to help poor children around the world. An example of what Singer is suggesting would be this quote from his article, “So a family earning $100,000 could cut an annual check for $70,000… Whatever money you are spending on luxuries, not necessities, should be given away" (Singer 254) . I don't agree with Peter Singer's theory because overall it is illogical. The main factors we will consider are: the economy and how buying luxury goods actually helps it, the debt of the middle and upper classes, and how expensive emergencies can be. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Starting with the economic aspect, as Americans can infer that most of our economic stability comes from purchasing goods. Goods that Peter Singer calls “luxuries” in his article “The Singer Solution to World Poverty” (254). Hypothetically speaking, we can deduce that without purchasing these luxury goods, our economy would slowly collapse. Think of all the car salesmen who profit from people buying new cars, or the jewelry artisans who make expensive, fine jewelry. Without purchasing these items, these people would not have jobs. If we delve deeper into this aspect, we will see that not only are jobs lost, but also the sales tax that is reduced by the direct purchase of these goods. These taxes are what fund education systems, traffic safety, healthcare, and many other important government programs. So now we can see how important it is to purchase these “luxury” items. The second reason that makes “The Singer Solution to World Poverty” illogical is the fact that most of these middle and upper class citizens are heavily in debt. Most of the time, when we see these successful doctors, lawyers and entrepreneurs, the first thing that comes to mind is how rich they seem. In fact, most of them have significant debt. Most of this debt does not come from obsessively spending money on luxury items, but rather from encouraging these people to build their careers. Continuing education is not free and starting a business is not free. Most of these successful people have to borrow a large amount of money to start their career. As a result, this money has to be paid back later, most of the time with a lot of interest included. Looking at the statistical aspect, a 2012 study showed that 71% of students graduating from a four-year institution have student loan debt; and among these students, the calculated average of their debt is approximately $25,550 (Gale). We can only deduce.
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