Give a little bit

Putting it into Practice »

As Australians, we enjoy one of the highest standards of living in the world, the global economic meltdown notwithstanding. Yet how many of us moan that we don’t have enough, that it’s a struggle meeting our multiple financial commitments, and that saving for a rainy day is well nigh impossible? Is it any wonder that in such a climate, donating to charity feels like a luxury many of us can’t afford?

But are our seeming monetary woes enough of a reason not to help folk far more impoverished than us? This question and others were put to acclaimed ethicist and philosopher, Peter Singer, as part of a Radio National Encounter program in May 2009. Peter explores these questions in depth in his most recent book The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty.

Lucky for us, Peter will be presenting at Happiness & Its Causes next month. For a small taste of what to expect at our conference, here are some of his thoughts on – it turns out – the not so straightforward subject of giving:

“We do have a capacity to help others, but it is focused mostly on those who are close to us in some ways, specifically kin obviously; our children, our partners, extended family; then to some extent the small group of which we’re a part, and also those with whom we’re in reciprocal relationships where we help them and they help us. And the difficulty, I think, for those interested in charity from an ethical point of view, is to get beyond that, and to look at … helping others simply because the others need help so badly, and they can provide it.”

Is it useful to talk about a moral obligation in relation to giving to charity and helping others?
“I think that there’s something a little skewed with our sense of moral obligation in that we feel that we are doing all we need to do to live an ethically good life if we keep a certain set of rules … of the form ‘Thou Shalt Not’, and I like to stress the idea that we can have obligations to help to do things, not just to not do things. And I think the idea that there’s an obligation to give at least something to those in extreme poverty can be effective in changing the culture of giving that we have.”

Is the relationship between giver and receiver complicated by distance?
“That’s a big psychological factor … that goes back to our evolutionary past, which evolved in the context of living in a small-scale society … where we saw everyone that we knew and cared about and we would help them if they were in need. But when we try to extend that to people we can’t see … then that evolutionary mechanism that we have for helping just doesn’t seem to kick in, and that’s a big problem. How do we get people to really relate to the global poor?”

Do we need to question this partiality in the context of global poverty?
“I think that it’s one thing to help your family and friends, it’s another thing to feel that you should provide every kind of luxury for your children before you give to strangers.”

So how much should we give?
“[My] book considers that possibility that ethics is really extremely demanding at this point and that we shouldn’t really be spending anything on luxuries while there are others starving, because there is something puzzling about the idea that you could be justified in spending money on something you don’t need, when you could give that money to Oxfam or some other organisation and it could possibly make a life-changing difference for someone. By the end of the book though, I’ve put forward the view that we do need to have a realistic set of standards that we can try to hold people to as part of changing the culture of giving. So what I’m suggesting is really for most people quite a modest amount, perhaps one percent of what they earn, rising to five, 10, 25 percent … if you’re seriously wealthy … That would raise something like one to one and a half trillion dollars from the affluent world … a vast increase on what is being given now in development aid.”

But what if we’re struggling financially ourselves?
“If you’re really struggling, if you’re not sure how you’ll be able to pay the rent or meet the mortgage payments, I could well understand if you say, ‘look, this is not the time for me to give …’. If, however, you merely feel that you’re struggling because there’s kind of this general sense of fear and insecurity around, I would say, ‘have a look at your situation; have a look at your assets … and see whether there is still scope for giving within what you have.’”

Image: Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net