A Rich Man's World

Before reading the article by Peter Singer I had a pretty strong opinion of money. My father works in finance and growing up in a decently conservative household I've always felt that donations are always nice and greatly appreciated, but not always necessary. Not that my family never donates to any causes, but we are just fairly particular in what we choose to do with our money. Yet, we definitely are the type of people to spend money on lavish vacations and home construction/re-modeling.

After reading this article my opinion was not altered to a huge amount. Great points were made about donating money and the benefits of it, but sometimes it seems all too distant to me. I'd much rather help with a local organization where I can see what my money is doing and how it is affecting people. The tough thing is although there are certainly plenty of problems/poverty in the United States, there are greater struggles abroad that Americans are donating to help to. It can often be difficult to donate your money when you're not seeing any of the results. Who exactly are you helping? What exactly is your money being used for? Personally, this is what would make me a bit reluctant to donate. 

I personally felt that this article was a bit to the extremes. Truly, my mind does not work exactly as Singer's does and I am not constantly thinking about how each and every decision I make will affect my life and those lives around me. Additionally, I live from my parent's money so it is not typically up to me what money we donate, etc.

Someone also made a great point on the blog about donating your time rather than money. This is an especially great idea because it gives much more of an experience and can help you realize what people are going through and you're helping people face to face rather than just giving money and that's it.