The Singer Solution By Peter Singer Analysis

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Everyone is their own individual, but we all belong to something bigger than ourselves. Something made of other individuals who have similarities, and have the ability to network effectively with one another. Communities are defined by the individuals that form them, and every individual is part of a community. Although many unintentionaly disagree , each individual has a responsibility to help their community to develop and grow. In The Singer Solution by Peter Singer, he starts the piece by describing a dilemma; Save a child or save your most prized personal possession. This situation sounds very extreme, but Singer says that we do this everyday. Modern people consider money to be one of their biggest assets. Everybody knows how to donate …show more content…
He said, “whatever money you’re spending on luxuries, not necessities, should be given away.”
There are less than a handful of people on our planet that could be saints, and I am not one of them. I prefer to reap the benefits of the money I have earned, so I suppose I am a bad person by Peter Singer’s standards. Garrett Hardin’s piece, Lifeboat Ethics, contrasts greatly to Singer’s views. Hardin adopts a sort of “tough luck” view towards the financial differences between people. Hardin said that “Some say they feel guilty about their good luck. My reply is simple:”Get out and yield your place to others.”” Again, I am not a saint, so I wouldn’t feel guilty enough to give up my place in the “lifeboat”. I feel this goes back to why we don’t donate to people in need. We kind of trick ourselves into thinking we need those extra things, so instead of the decision being “kid or most prized possession” it's “Me or him”. If we donate the money, we may not have enough to sustain our own lives. Hardin talks about the limited number of spaces in the “lifeboat”, and how not everybody can be in it. I strongly agree, and make many decisions based off this mindset. I know that in Freshman Transitions we were taught to find the “win-win situation”, but