The Drawbacks of Neo-Anti-Capitalism

I think it's safe to say that our generation finds it much easier to criticize older generations than any other before. A general lack of total deference to older people leads us to be very vocal about what we stand for, especially when it can be presented as something contradictory to what our parents think. Now, anyone with even a basic understanding of American or global economics can tell you that, on either scale, collective wealth is nowhere close to being evenly distributed. Singer offered us a simple solution: use only what you need, and donate the rest of your money. If everyone committed to this strategy, then suddenly: no more poverty. And Singer is right, and we know Singer is right, and a lot of us support Singer's philosophical criticism of our modern greed and selfishness.

But I also think that we, as a younger generation, like to alienate ourselves from it. It's easy for us to look at adults with real jobs and real money under their jurisdiction, and see them under Singer's lens as selfish in their possession. However, I think the truth is that we've also succumb to the big, bad greed more than any other generation preceding us. Our obsession with Things is unbelievable. And it might be harder to realize because more often than not, our parents are the ones buying the Things for us per our request, or our funding for the Things is based on an allowance system dependent on our parents. But we have more control over our own financial lives than we'd like to admit.

Imagine that every time your parents gave you money to eat out or see a movie (or for those of us who actually have consistent sources of disposable income through jobs, imagine that every time you were paid), you gave away the money just as Singer suggested. It would in fact be easier for us in this period of time because we are financial dependents. No matter what we do with our extra money, (in most cases) our parents will still provide all of our essential stuff. But not one of us would do it (or so I'm willing to bet), because the culture of possession, the culture of Things is so ingrained in our social environments, in our own personal measures of happiness. So we can snap for Singer all we want, and shake our heads at our silly parents who aren't saving children with their extra cash, but the truth is that Singer's article is also a call to us. Alienation of oneself from the perpetrators of injustice can breed passivity.