Always Hungry

People today are starving and wasting away more in developing countries with a lower standard of living than ever before. Yet here in America and other developed, “civilized” countries we have so much and give back so little. People starving in Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands are living in poverty and we are obligated to do something about it if we can because we caused it, people deserve to be treated with respect as ends rather than means, and helping others that are less fortunate is excellent for the whole world in terms of levels of good produced by certain actions. Preventing deaths is the moral thing to do in this case of helping living, breathing, and suffering persons. We should help them by sending money, genetically modified food, and teaching women to control the population. This paper will argue that if you can to donate help to relieve world hunger then you are morally obligated to do so to lower suffering on the planet.

Over 12 million people, most of which are under the age of 5, die every year from the flu, diarrhea, and other diseases that are completely preventable (Social Problems). In America, the country that uses most of the worlds resources, we do very little to help them because all that matters is what I want. Capitalism and Social Darwinism in America feeds our individualism to make us think that people in poverty are lazier than us and they just need to work harder. We also have a more conscious appealing argument that if we do nothing then we aren’t causing their deaths. Mylan Engle brings up the point that if we see a baby drowning in a puddle then we are obligated to bend over and pick it up. I don’t think anyone would disagree with a very literal hypothetical situation such as this one. If it’s easy to prevent death, then we should try and prevent it. The underlying problem with Mylan Engel’s situation is that it’s too literal. Even though many people know that there are millions dying in Africa and other underdeveloped nations, since we don’t see them, no one has any urge to go donate money or whatever they can to help. And our helpful Social Darwinism that is lodged into our brains tells us that it’s ok we don’t help when we actually start to think of the problem at hand. So let’s bring another hypothetical situation, but a more immoral, emotional situation to think about instead of a simple one like helping one drowning baby.