Peter Singer indicated that the estimated annual cost of meeting the Millennium Development Goals would be $189 billion by 2015. If each one of the top-10-percent of the rich gave 10 percent of their annual income, $171 billion would be yielded. In his article, Peter Singer said, “how easy it would be for the world’s rich to eliminate, or virtually eliminate, global poverty.”
Peter Singer was surprised by his statistical analysis about the donation capacity of the America’s Top 10 percent of income earners. So was I. It seemed that any problem could be easily solved just based on the donation of America’s Top 10 percent of the rich. Was it true? Would every one of the top 10 percent of the rich like to give 10 percent of their annual income to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals? No. Peter Singer’s statistical result is just a bundle of numbers. There is no reason to expect that each of the rich would like to give out their money.
Charity needs people who have donation capacities, but it also needs to respect people’s willingness about whether they would like to donate or not. To yield the $171 billion out of the rich, we must first guarantee that each of them will voluntarily give their money. There are 13 million people among them: some are looking forward to further developing their businesses, some are ready to taste luxury life, and some care more about their families, relatives, and friends rather than other unrelated people. Every one of them has their own different plans about how to spend their annual incomes. It is unreasonable to expect that each one of them to give 10 percent of their incomes to charities.
Forbes pinned down 946 billionaires in one report on March 8th, 2007. Zell Kravinsky, Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and Warren Buffett are famous not only for their fortunes, but also for their contributions to charities. However, they are only 4 of the 946, and they give their money into different fields. Gates and Buffett engage in stopping malaria, and Kravinsky prompts health care development. Some people donate their money to improve the education situation of the world, and some people give a lot to stop wars or help victims in wars. People have different ideas about who and what is important enough to get help. People donate their money to fulfill their own goals—relieving misery, solacing their consciousness, or improving some situations, but not certainly to fulfill the list of the Millennium Development Goals. Therefore, Peter Singer’s thought that global poverty could be easily solved based on the donation of the world’s rich is proved to be unreasonable again.
What should a billionaire give? This question should not be asked by Peter Singer, or by any other expert, especially should not be asked in such a famous magazine—The New York Times. No matter what unfair elements there are in business trades, billionaires earn their fortunes by taking risks, spending times, and giving efforts. They have absolute rights to arrange their fortunes by themselves—whether or not to donate their money, how much to donate, and to whom they donate their money. Billionaires have rights to make these decisions freely, but should not be urged to donate by any advocator, or by the goals of any charity. To some extent, donation is completely personal thing. What should a billionaire give? The question should be asked by billionaires themselves. They have their own desires and standards on donation. Of course, others have rights to discuss about whether they are generous or not. However, others should not take the billionaires’ own positions to decide how much or to whom they should give.
Source URL
Peter Singer
http://www.princeton.edu/~psinger/
http://www.princeton.edu/~psinger/faq.html
What Should a Billionaire Give--and What Should You?
http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2007/04/11/what-should-a-billionaire-give-and-what-should-you/
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/17/magazine/17charity.t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&sq=what%20should%20a%20billionaire%20give%20peter%20singer&scp=1
The World’s Richest People
http://www.forbes.com/2007/03/06/billionaires-new-richest_07billionaires_cz_lk_af_0308billieintro.html
Education and Poverty
