Re: [pf] Singer Solution to World Poverty

>At 10:36 AM 9/6/99 -0400, Tom Gray wrote:
>>     Is it possible to quantify our charitable burden? ...
>
At 13:09 6/09/99 -0400, tully wrote:
>Interesting article, Tom.  I certainly agree with it. ...
>                       Many many people believe that if 
>they contribute to world hunger, medication, etc., they will 
>only be making the over-population problem worse.                        
>...  Why feed the one now who will simply sire 4 more later?  
>Besides ... not be a strain on the rest of us.
>
>Pardon my bluntness ...

**  I agree that this is how a lot think; it's because they are "them, over
there" (across the ocean, across the tracks), they are no concern of mine,
except when they threaten something dear to me. Like my way of life.

**  The article made the distinction about not being face-to-face with the
person who will die or be seriously debilitated if you fail to move away
from the easy way out. The USA is a rich ghetto.
**  I was pleased to see the measure of excessive consumption in that piece
- anything above US$30,000 p.a. _I_ think that's twice what it should be,
but I know prices in some cities in the US are extraordinarily high. People
should not buy when the price is too high, they should go elsewhere.
**  The thinking that tully quotes focusses on population numbers, and so
directs one's attention to the parts of the world where the greatest
increases are occurring. There _is_ a serious problem in India and (I
think) South America, but there also _is_ a serious problem in the rich
North, with over-consumption - thinking that you have to have as much money
as you can get, so you can spend it. That attitude is as serious a problem
as the other, and in my view, more so.

David.
(David MacClement) d1v9d @ bigfoot.com (remove nospam spaces)
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/3142/Pg1-AD11.html#top
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