The Unfortunate Disparities Between Privileged And Poor And What We Should Do

The article by Peter Singer about privilege and priorities in society is one of the most interesting articles I have read in a long time. It is fascinating because it talks about such an important topic of the disparities between the rich and poor in the world. As a society, we tend to recognize and address these gap issues. But what are we actually doing about it? Singer offers debatable insight about it.

Singer dives into the idea that people with stability are obligated to assist children and families who are less fortunate. In his article, he uses an example of a guy named Bob who has saved up for a Bugatti. When Bob sees a young child about to be hit by a train, he realizes if he hits the switch button to stop the train, the train will fall on top of and destroy his Bugatti. Bob doesn't hit the button and the kid dies. This is terrible in my opinion and an example of how people in society have their priorities out of order. A life is far more important than a car. However, I begin to disagree with Singer when he says what Bob did is the same thing as not donating $200 to an organization or charity. Not everyone has the money or ability to give to these organizations, but everyone can save a kid who was in Bob's situation.

Ultimately, I see both sides to Singer's argument. Even a few dollars can help, but not everybody has the extra money to give to organizations and save other lives. I am a strong believer in selflessness and providing for the less privileged. However, the wealthy population of people should be the ones donating if anything. They are the people in the world with money to spare and if they choose to buy themselves things, that's one thing. But I don't think someone is in the wrong if they are caring for their own family first, whether that's going to eat, buying clothes, paying for their school, taking them out, etc. We definitely can be more mindful as a society about how we are spending because Singer is definitely right when he says a good amount of money people spend unnecessarily could go to these impoverished children. He's also definitely right about how it's wrong that people put objects before humans. I can't believe someone would ever choose to save their car over a life. You can replace a car but you can't replace a person. In a perfect world, everyone should donate to the poor. It is however unrealistic considering not every stable middle-class family has that type of money to give to organizations.

I wish poverty wasn't a thing. It's truly unfortunate that society is separated in that sense. In the end, I believe privileged individuals are obligated to spend less on themselves, form more donation groups within their communities, and donate some type of number whether its 200$ or 1$. The problem is that many people indeed do these acts of kindness such as save a kid from being hit by a vehicle or donate to a charity. Yet, we still have disparities and an overwhelming amount of families in destitute. Either more privileged people need to wake up and be selfless or something in the structure of society needs to change.