Billionaire Sacrifice
A critique of “What Should a Billionaire Give---- and What Should You?”
Singer begins his essay with a simple question, “What is a human life worth?” (578). “Singer suggests that most people would be unwilling to a value on the life another human”. Singer continues the topic by writing about some of the charitable beliefs of Bill Gates and how it was that Gates developed some of those values over time, which was in part due to hearing about a viral infection that kills around five hundred million children each year. Singer then goes on to give a statistic that around a billion people must survive on the equivalent of “less than one U.S. dollar per day” and that “more than ten million children die every year . . . from avoidable, poverty-related …show more content…
It doesn’t really attack the rich, but suggests that they would likely be able to donate more of their fortions at relatively little actual expense to them. And not only that, Singer does also state that the burden shouldn’t be only that of the lavishly rich, but also that “. . . everyone able to afford more than the basic necessities of life gives something, even if it is as little as one percent” (587). The essay is very well organized in its writing, flowing from one topic to the next, and each supports the former. The article was generally easy to read, with most words being those that one would typically use in everyday life, and rarely getting to a more academic level. But this does happen, such as when he writes,” . . . and teaching about the ethical issue posed by the juxtaposition . . .” (589). Singers tone throughout the essay is one that is relatively dry and uninteresting, mostly using statistical values to inform the reader and persuade them into the same beliefs as he has. For example, he says that, “the amount of foreign development aid given by the U.S. government is, at 22 cents for every $100 the nation earns” (583). Based off of these evaluations, I am lead to believe that the target audience is probably around there 30’s or older and likely have finish high school and perhaps some college as it is an article from time
Singer begins his essay with a simple question, “What is a human life worth?” (578). “Singer suggests that most people would be unwilling to a value on the life another human”. Singer continues the topic by writing about some of the charitable beliefs of Bill Gates and how it was that Gates developed some of those values over time, which was in part due to hearing about a viral infection that kills around five hundred million children each year. Singer then goes on to give a statistic that around a billion people must survive on the equivalent of “less than one U.S. dollar per day” and that “more than ten million children die every year . . . from avoidable, poverty-related …show more content…
It doesn’t really attack the rich, but suggests that they would likely be able to donate more of their fortions at relatively little actual expense to them. And not only that, Singer does also state that the burden shouldn’t be only that of the lavishly rich, but also that “. . . everyone able to afford more than the basic necessities of life gives something, even if it is as little as one percent” (587). The essay is very well organized in its writing, flowing from one topic to the next, and each supports the former. The article was generally easy to read, with most words being those that one would typically use in everyday life, and rarely getting to a more academic level. But this does happen, such as when he writes,” . . . and teaching about the ethical issue posed by the juxtaposition . . .” (589). Singers tone throughout the essay is one that is relatively dry and uninteresting, mostly using statistical values to inform the reader and persuade them into the same beliefs as he has. For example, he says that, “the amount of foreign development aid given by the U.S. government is, at 22 cents for every $100 the nation earns” (583). Based off of these evaluations, I am lead to believe that the target audience is probably around there 30’s or older and likely have finish high school and perhaps some college as it is an article from time