Global Poverty

Do rich people (countries) have a moral obligation to help alleviate global poverty? This question has been the subject of many political and social debates. While the answer to such question is not yet establish, the reality is that there is a large number of people that are living in extreme poverty throughout the world. People who are dying from hunger, malnutrition and diseases that are now easily curable, while waiting for a help that does not get deliver. According to the World Bank, the number of people living in Sub-Sahara in a 1.25-a-day poverty rate was 47 percent in 2011. Furthermore, “in 2011, just over 80 percent of the extremely poor lived in South Asia (399 million) and Sub-Saharan Africa (415 million). In addition, 161 million

Singer goes as far as to suggest that rich countries should give up part of their wealth in order to help poor people in the world. His argument begins with the premise that “suffering and death from lack of food, shelter, and medical care are bad”. For instance, in the 2013 Human Development Report of South Africa, the life expectancy of a person in South Africa was 56.92 years, and the percentage of people living under $2 a day was 19.7 percent. Millions of people around the world are suffering from hunger, lack a shelter and medical care, basic necessities that people from affluent countries take from granted. There is no sound and coherent argument that can be constructed that would claim that Singer first premise if false. Human beings, rich or poor, are entitle to certain fundamental necessities that cannot be taken away from them. It is their inalienable right to have food and a

Gilabert claims that positive duties are also important when it comes to determining the assistance of the affluent countries to the poor. Positive duties, according to Gilabert, are duties that benefit and protect human beings. These positives duties are especially important in order to eradicate global poverty. According to Gilabert, “satisfying negative duties is not enough for securing the absence of global poverty even if all presently existing poverty can be traced back to the impact of harmful policies by the global