Unsustainable Aid

While Singer offers valid arguments in Famine, Affluence, and Morality, I believe the argument falls short of being sound when Singer asserts that, through sending aid, we have the power to prevent suffering and death from a lack of food, shelter and medical care.  I agree that sending aid can be a good a thing, but that this top-down approach will not be as impactful or sustainable as Singer asserts it will be in preventing suffering and death. Sending aid through private organizations or governments is a bureaucratic process that does not guarantee that the money or relief items will reach the people in need. Additionally, this approach as it stands does not do enough to empower the disenfranchised people and communities themselves. Another reason I question the effectiveness of foreign aid is that it can create reliance on aid and not address the roots of the problems. Perhaps if aid were reorganized to give the communities in need the control to decide how the money is spent as a bottom-up structure, then Singer’s call for sending aid would hold more weight.

                Even if the above criteria were met, I still don't believe that sending money to countries is enough in order to effectively prevent suffering and death from a lack of food, shelter, and medical care. Singer acknowledges that as a result of affluent people sending aid to famine relief and foreign aid, our consumer society would “…slow down and perhaps disappear entirely.” I believe that this result would be a more sustainable and therefore desirable option than just sending money would be. A country such as the United States relies on the marginalization of poor countries through either natural resource extraction, cheap labor, or both, not to mention the far reaching effects of pollution and climate change which are also negative consequences of our rate of consumption. Thus instead of a focus on donating money, something should be done to either shift the belief that consumption is good/necessary or to ensure prices that acknowledge negative externalities.  In this way, we can reduce the exploitation and marginalization of countries caused by Western consumption, which can be a major cause of the lack of food, shelter, and medical care.