"The Singer Solution to World Poverty" by Peter Singer is a very thought provoking essay analyzing human attitude and behavior towards giving overseas aid to people in need. With a combination of scenarios with morallity issues, hard facts, and playing on peoples' guilt, Singer's essay in a nutshell tells us that we should donate lots and lots of money overseas because a) it is the morally sound thing to do, and b) we can. While I do not completely agree with all of his points, it is agreeable that Singer has created a very effective essay.

The first thing Singer does is provide morally conflicting scenarios that put all Americans in the same boat; the boat of people unable or unwilling to donate at least $200 to overseas aid. By providing these two scenarios of Dora the retired school teacher and Bob and his Bugatti, Singer effectively establishes the fact "that it is also very wrong not to send money to …[an] organizations" (2), and in fact, he says that it is "gravely wrong" (2) for those of us not sending overseas aid. Reading this essay made me feel like a very guilty man.

I am not in agreement with the second half of Singer's essay that says we should not give $200, not $1,000, not 10,000, but tens of thousands of dollars because we can. I'll agree with the fact that if $200 dollars is all a person needs to donate to save a child, that it is a relatively small hole in most peoples' wallets. He says we should all feel as morally responsible as Bob should feel for killing the child on the railroad tracks because we are all "killing" little kids by not donating money. But the honest to goodness truth is that I don't. For the most part I sleep happily at night, keeping these kinds of things out of my dreams. And rather than saving people we hardly know, isn't our obligation as American citizens "the puruit of happiness"? This line of thought may seem cruel and despicable, the reality of it. Many people sleep happily at night, and they would probably feel a little less happy knowing that they are a few ten thousand dollars poorer. In this sense I agree that "that would be taking fairness too far" (3).