The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty
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The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty

3.95 of 5 stars 3.95  ·  rating details  ·  532 ratings  ·  180 reviews
Using ethical arguments, provocative thought experiments, illuminating examples, and case studies of charitable giving, philosopher Peter Singer shows that our current response to world poverty is not only insufficient but ethically indefensible.

Singer contends that we need to change our views of what is involved in living an ethical life. To help us play our part in bring

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Hardcover, 224 pages
Published March 3rd 2009 by Random House (first published January 1st 2009)
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Vegantrav
This book underscores why Peter Singer is the most influential philosopher living today. He takes his utilitarianism very seriously, and the implications of this philosophy, if followed, would radically change our world for the better. In this book, Singer lays out the case for why those of us in affluent nations should be giving to charity to help the poor worldwide. What is actually most surprising to me is the final section in which he lays out the numbers: if the richest 10% of those in ...more
Worthless Bum
This most recent work by my favorite philosopher is something of an expanded and up to date version of the ideas expressed in his seminal 1972 essay "Famine, Affluence, and Morality". The idea being, people in wealthy countries give pitifully small amounts of money to those in abject poverty in the third world - people who are so poor that their lives are in jeopardy - and thus they should give much more generously. Singer employs the familiar "Pond" thought experiment in add...more
Rory
Rory rated it 2 of 5 stars
I'm not sure what I expected out of this book. Probably an articulate, super-strong inspiration to give money to charity...and instruction on how and where to give it so that my meager offerings would do the most "good." But instead I just felt guilty and shamed after reading the first few chapters, and frustrated after skimming the rest.

That's actually how Singer wants you to feel, believes everyone should feel--that it's a basic measure of humanity to give a significant ...more
Nick Ziegler
Can easily be read in a sitting or two. Singer begins by setting a stringent standard for adjudicating the moral worth of acts and omissions, then casually surveys the psychological literature on why our evolutionary heritage and general proclivities might prove problematic in this regard. Having addressed commonplace concerns, Singer provides a factual basis on which to assess the efficacy and reliability of aid and development organizations and methods, and offers practical assessments regar...more
Ruby
There are about 1 billion people living in what are considered affluent countries. Those countries government and private donations give an amount of money that works out to roughly $60 per person in donations.

There are 3 billion people living in poverty – living on less than $2/day. Even in countries that have very small economies, this is not considered enough money to give a person access to housing, food, education, and basic health care.

Given those two things, $60/person is clearly not enou...more
Dave Golombek
This is perhaps Singer's simplest book, in that he adresses a much narrower subject than he frequently tackles, but in doing so, her creates his most persuasive work (amongst those I've read), and the one with the broadest appeal. This book covers the moral and ethical imperative to donate to charity, in particular those charities helping the poorest in the world.

The book starts with a few simple examples, such as finding a child drowning in a pond or stuck on railroad tracks and bri...more
Ian Guy
Singer's challenge is in your face. If you can help the poorest of the poor and do nothing you are not a good person. We all have an obligation to our neighbours (wherever they may be). In the concluding chapters Singer softens his stance slightly by suggesting that we must give until there is nothing left to give to a suggestion that those on low incomes give 1% to the poor, mid incomes 5% and higher incomes proportionally more. he's also suggesting a form of taxation that would achieve this - ...more
Victoria Wheeler
I read this book as someone who was already very sympathetic to Singer's argument that giving is important. I was not only already familiar with Singer's work, but as a practicing Christian, I already tithe. Instead, what I was looking for was to hear Singer's argument for particularly how we should give. In that case, I think he does a great job showing that it is very important to focus on the impoverished. I also very much enjoyed the beginning section, in which Singer justifies why giving is...more
Kristin
When I was in college, my roommate and I joked about choosing a major by process of elimination and we soon crossed philosophy of the list. For me, this book is the opposite of the college reading assignments I saw as hard to understand and irrelevant. Peter Singer shows the extent of extreme poverty around the globe and challenges us "to see helping those in great need as an indispensable part of what it is to live an ethical life." Are fancy clothes, dinners out, entertainment, an...more
Haven Wendy
A very interesting and impacting book, as it looked at fighting world poverty (an issue important to me) from a purely logical point of view. That is a perspective I have not considered before, but this book "proves" the need for those of us living in affluence to help those living in extreme poverty. And shows we can impact this global issue that hinders millions of people from living in any type of comfort and health.

I have always known that the simple fact that I have more than ...more
Jennie
Jennie rated it 1 of 5 stars
This book has a lot of misdirected energy. For the majority of the book, the author makes the philosophical argument that as citizens of wealthy nations, we have the ethical responsibility to live ascetically and give all of our disposable income to charity. He then proceeds to explain our resistance to that idea as a function of "human nature", but comes off sounding like his knowledge of human nature is derived from the analysis of clinical studies more than from interactions with ac...more
Jeff Culver
Anousheh Ansari paid $20 million for 11 days in space. Comedian Lewis Black said she did it because it was “the only way she could achieve her life’s goal of flying over every single starving person on earth and yelling ‘Hey, look what I’m spending my money on!’”

It turns out that we’re all Anousheh Ansaris in subtle and not so subtle ways. This anecdote, and Singer’s book as a whole, unwraps his two key claims that 1) “If it is in your power to prevent something bad from happening, w...more
Kate Lawrence
Would you save the life of a dying child if it didn’t require very much of you to do so? No risk to your life, no long period of time, no special skills, no great expense? Nearly everyone says that they would. Yet we have that opportunity constantly, and few of us respond.
Peter Singer became famous as the author of Animal Liberation, the ground-breaking book that launched the modern animal rights movement over 35 years ago and first started me on the path to becoming vegetarian. His l...more
Xing
Xing rated it 4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for: anyone who earns a decent income
Wonderful, wonderful book in so many ways.
Peter Singer draws on a wealth of experience and information, and takes a mature, evaluative look at the gap between rich and poor.

He summarises basic statistics regarding this disparity (earning power, standards of living, extent of charitable giving, in different parts of the world), but this is not the main focus of the book. (I recommend The World Food Problem: Tackling the Causes of Undernutrition in the Third World, for that.)
...more
Elizabeth
Elizabeth marked it as to-read
from the library
frim the library computer

Preface
THE ARGUMENT
Saving a Child
Is It Wrong Not to Help?
Common Objections to Giving
HUMAN NATURE
Why Don't We Give More?
Creating a Culture of Giving
THE FACTS ABOUT AID
How Much Does It Cost to Save a Life, and How Can You Tell Which Charities Do It Best?
Improving Aid
A NEW STANDARD FOR GIVING
Your Child and the Children of Others
Asking To...more
Brenda Pike
I feel bad giving this only three stars, because Peter Singer is my idol. And when I read the article it's based on in the NY Times, I was deeply affected by it. It prompted Jason and I to decide to increase our donations from 1% to 5% of our income once we pay off our student loans this year. But I don't think the book adds that much to the article, except length. Certainly not clarity. I was looking forward to a discussion of the most effective ways to improve the lives of the world's poor, an...more
René
René rated it 3 of 5 stars
Shelves: philosophie
My son encouraged me to read this book and I am thankful he did. My way to donate has qualitatively and quantatively increased since he first talked to me about it.

Yes, we could all give more, but probably due to his unconditional love for animals, nowhere does Peter Singer mention that Americans spend yearly over $52 billions in pet care, which is over one quarter of what the Millenium Development Goals would require every year to fix the most pressing needs of the world's poorest ...more
Jessie
Jessie rated it 3 of 5 stars
Shelves: nonfiction
Hm.
3 1/2 stars actually. I'm of many minds about this book: could be a dynamite conversation-starter and change-agent; could be toxic and guilt-inducing; could be another way for us to say "I'm living right; gold star please." Singer's the Animal Liberation guy and his argument (this bk is a moral argument, not at all pulling-on-heart-stringsy) is full of shoulds and cocksureness. Not a voice that I like, writerly-wise, but he is clear and he does boil down some dizzying info...more
Anne
Anne rated it 4 of 5 stars
Peter Singer is a professor of bioethics at Princeton. In this book, he asks what each of us can do to help end world poverty - suggesting that every person with means to spare (most of us) should aim to give 5% of their income each year to charity. Specifically, Singer advocates donations to international organizations, despite most people's inclination to give to organizations closer to home. Singer then addresses various philosophical or ethical responses from people who choose not to give - ...more
Lisa
This is a wonderful book that can change your life and make you feel at last that you can do something about the tragedies we see on TV all the time.

In a nutshell, Singer asks us why if we would not hesitate to jump into a pond to save the life of a drowning child, we do not have the same impulse to save the lives of children who are dying of preventable disease and malnutrition in developing countries. He says that if we are choosing to spend money on bottled water, for example, w...more
May-Ling
this book is seriously amazing. i think peter singer is the best writer of logical arguments i've come across. he lays out a moral and ethical framework that i cannot deny, although clearly i'm already bought into his ideals. also, it's incredibly readable and i zipped through it like a fiction novel as opposed to a non-fiction piece. his philosophical examples really make you think and case studies are inspiring. i wasn't thrilled with the last chapter and the numbers game he plays, but i thin...more
JoyfulK
Singer's idea is great, but whether there needs to be a whole book about it is questionable. Here's the idea: donate a small part of your after-tax income, on a progressive scale, to projects that are working to end starvation. The scale starts out at 1% for people who have enough income to feed and shelter themselves and their families, and goes up for those who have more.

If you already don't agree this is a useful idea, read the book for the ethical arguments pro and con. Singer is...more
Steven Tomlinson
With more and more evidence that charitable organizations are making a difference for the world's poorest and more rigorous data on exactly what it costs to save a life -- about $300 prevents a child's death in a developing country, $50 restores sight, $450 for deformity-correcting surgeries that reunite outcasts with their societies -- it gets harder to avoid Singer's conclusion: If we aspire to live ethical lives, we must seriously reconsider what we do with our money. Back of the envelope c...more
Cappy
Cappy rated it 4 of 5 stars
Shelves: philosophy
An excellent, accessible presentation of a distressingly unheeded argument.

"Do you have a bottle of water or a can of soda on the table beside you as you read this book? If you are paying for something to drink when safe drinking water comes out of the tap, you have money to spend on things you don't really need." (pg. xi)

"South Asia is still the region with the largest number of people living in extreme poverty, a total of 600 million, including 455 millio...more
Jon Silver
This book is so weird! The beginning is horrible, it will really make you mad. He says drinking anything but tap water with your meals is spending too frivolously and people should spend any excess money they have towards helping the global poor. Okay, fine. Then, to dispel opposition, he responds to a bunch of high schoolers who were given an assignment to oppose such generosity. Great job Peter Singer, you really tore those high schoolers apart!

The middle of the book is great thou...more
Melissa
An incredibly uncomfortable book to read. If you take Singer's message to heart, you will be challenged to completely rethink the way you spend money and what you can morally allow yourself to consider "necessary." On the other hand, radical and empowering. Basically, fairly modest contributions from every middle class person in the world (and proportionately-sized large-scale contributions from the ultra-wealthy) could virtually wipe out world poverty, defined here as starvation, maln...more
Miller Sherling
This book starts off quite uncomfortable-making for those of us lucky enough to be affluent. Singer piles on psych research results, stats about poverty and affluence around the world, moral arguments, and the relationships among them all. His book somehow ends on an optimistic note. He puts together a formula for giving, none of it too much for anyone to handle (not by a long way!) to end poverty. Along the way, he formulates a useful way to frame personal versus public praise and blame, solvin...more
Matej Kurian
Thought-provoking call to action. Written in an easily-accessible language Singer presents compelling moral and economic argument for greater giving of the West to the extremely poor.

Singer addresses everything a philanthropy primer should: morality, aid effectiveness, scope of aid needed as well as practical ways of getting started.

My favorite part is when Singer deals with common critiques of the aid industry, and suggests how to donate effectively.

If the ti...more
Ugh
Ugh rated it 3 of 5 stars
I am not part of the target audience for this book, and neither, I suspect, are you. I'll come to why later...

I do like the way Singer approaches his books - he starts out by telling you where you're going to end up, and then proceeds to take you to your destination in a clear and concise manner, dealing with likely objections before they arise as he goes - but reading this I thought for a while that we were heading squarely for a two-star rating, partly because of that target audien...more
Shel
Ethicist Peter Singer makes a compelling argument that we
need to create a stronger Culture of Giving and suggests a specific standard for what people in wealthy countries could do to help those in impoverished ones.

He references Charlotte Perkins Gilman's story "The Unnatural Mother" in talking about the "radical" utopian ideal of having a larger sense of family, mentioning how some utopian communities have tried (and failed) to instill a sense of community...more
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The Life You Can Save (Hardcover)
The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty (Paperback)
The Life You Can Save: How To Play Your Part In Ending World Poverty (Paperback)
The Life You Can Save: Acting Now To End World Poverty (Paperback)
Life You Can Save (ebook)

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Peter Albert David Singer is an Australian philosopher. He is the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, and laureate professor at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics (CAPPE), University of Melbourne. He specializes in applied ethics, approaching ethical issues from a secular preference utilitarian perspective.

He has served, on two occasions, as c...more
More about Peter Singer...
Animal Liberation The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter Practical Ethics One World: The Ethics of Globalization, Second  Edition Writings on an Ethical Life

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“Hebrew word for "charity" tzedakah, simply means "justice" and as this suggests, for Jews, giving to the poor is no optional extra but an essential part of living a just life.” 7 people liked it
“Extreme poverty is not only a condition of unsatisfied material needs. It is often accompanied by a degrading state of powerlessness. ” 3 people liked it
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