A Study On Sharing The Wealth Philosophy Essay

A Study On Sharing The Wealth Philosophy Essay There are many people in the world who are currently living in horrible conditions that include malnutrition, hunger, and polluted drinking water. While these people are living in such horrible conditions, I am living a comfortable life and have a habit of taking advantage of certain luxuries that are available to me, but not to someone living in such unfortunate conditions. If a global tax was instated in an attempt to end hunger by contributing a mere one dollar a week, then I would be more than willing to support this movement. There are some others who would agree to and support this tax, but there are also some who disagree with this tax. Different individuals who would have varying opinions on this idea for a global tax are Thomas Pogge, John McMillian, Peter Singer, and Garrett Hardin. Thomas Pogge, as shown in his essay, â€Å"World Poverty and Human Rights,† would seem to agree with the notion of a global tax to help aid those in need. He writes that we have duties, â€Å"not to expose people to life-threatening poverty and duties to shield them from harms for which we would be actively responsible† (Pogge 319). In other words, he believes that those who live in wealthier nations should not allow other people to fall to illnesses if they can afford not to. This would include leaving people to just starve when one can contribute a small portion of our funds to them. Pogge also discusses the topic of how richer countries, such as the United States, strip these poorer areas of their own natural resources. He does mention that these countries to pay for it, but there is a problem with this payment. â€Å"The payments we make for resource imports go to the rulers of the resource-rich countries, with no concern about whether they are democratically elected or at least minimally attentive to the needs to the people they rule† (Pogge 320). Although the richer nations may be paying for the resources they take away, they are paying to leade rs who may not share this payment fairly with those that they rule. With this idea in mind, perhaps Pogge would be even more supportive of this global tax if it could be guaranteed that the funds from the tax would be placed in the correct hands and those who need it will actually receive it. Peter Singer is another person who would agree to this notion of a global tax– to an extent. In his essay, â€Å"World Poverty and Hunger,† he states that, â€Å"I (Singer) begin with the assumption that suffering and death from lack of food, shelter, and medical care are bad† (Singer 332). It would be an obvious conclusion to come to from this that he would agree that everyone (who can afford to do so) contributing something to people who are suffering from those things would be a good thing. This is ratified when he states that, â€Å"if it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening, with-out thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we ou ght, morally, to do it† (Singer 332). Again, this would lead to the conclusion that he would be in favor of this tax.