The Singer Solution to World Poverty

Australian philosopher Peter Singer was born in 1946 to Jewish parents who fled persecution in Vienna, Austria, when the Nazis came to power. In his twenties, while he was studying philosophy at the University of Oxford, an encounter with a colleague who chose not to eat meat led Singer to become a vegetarian and to author Animal Liberation: A New Ethics for Our Treatment of Animals in 1975. During his successful academic career, Singer has earned prestigious appointments at several universities, including Princeton, and has become an increasingly influential, if controversial, voice, on bioethical matters.

In addition to animal rights, Singer takes a strong interest in such issues as environmentalism, reproductive rights, euthanasia, and poverty. The views he expressed in his 1999 article, “The Singer Solution to World Poverty,” are evident much earlier in his career. In his 1972 article “Famine, Affluence, and Morality,” Singer famously used the analogy of a drowning child to make a similar argument that the wealthy have a moral obligation to the poor, no matter how far apart they are. In these and other matters, Singer draws on the utilitarian school of philosophy, in which actions that lead to happiness and pleasure are preferred to those that cause pain. Just as Singer’s concern for animal rights prevents him from eating meat, so, too, his concern for the poor motivates him to donate about 20% of his income to famine relief.

Coupled with his academic background, Singer’s practical experience in charitable efforts makes him one of the central figures of effective altruism, a movement that seeks to maximize participants’ positive impact on others’ wellbeing through careful reasoning and analysis of evidence. In that context, “The Singer Solution to World Poverty” is a continuation of efforts to reach the greatest number of people with a message that he views as overwhelmingly important.