The Life You Save (self aware liberal guilt edition)
The philosopher Peter Singer makes an excellent argument for the human moral imperative of helping others. If we want to be good people, says Singer, we need to give some of what we have to alleviate the misery of the world's poorest people.
The NY Times review, which gives a nice summary of his arguments and possible counter-arguments (the economy, problems with aid organizations, others).
On this site, The Life You Can Save, you can consult his sliding scale of suggested donations (for most of us it's a not very challenging 1%), pledge to join, and find a list of recommended organizations you could donate to. (Givewell is particularly interesting -- it's an organization that harshly evaluates the efficacy of charitable groups and makes a case for making donations to organizations that work in developing countries because your dollar goes so much further.) Thinking about what I *do* spend my discretionary money on (*cough* -- you know what I'm talking about flist!), I decided I would do this. (Yes, I know -- it's a cheap buy out for my guilty liberal conscience. Maybe it's a start anyway.)
Edit: I think I'm going to go with Partners in Health.
(P.S. Don't mean to be preachy on a Saturday morning ... um afternoon. I know we are all trying to live good lives in different ways.)
The NY Times review, which gives a nice summary of his arguments and possible counter-arguments (the economy, problems with aid organizations, others).
On this site, The Life You Can Save, you can consult his sliding scale of suggested donations (for most of us it's a not very challenging 1%), pledge to join, and find a list of recommended organizations you could donate to. (Givewell is particularly interesting -- it's an organization that harshly evaluates the efficacy of charitable groups and makes a case for making donations to organizations that work in developing countries because your dollar goes so much further.) Thinking about what I *do* spend my discretionary money on (*cough* -- you know what I'm talking about flist!), I decided I would do this. (Yes, I know -- it's a cheap buy out for my guilty liberal conscience. Maybe it's a start anyway.)
Edit: I think I'm going to go with Partners in Health.
(P.S. Don't mean to be preachy on a Saturday morning ... um afternoon. I know we are all trying to live good lives in different ways.)