- Paperback: 208 pages
- Publisher: Picador (5 Feb 2010)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0330454595
- ISBN-13: 978-0330454599
- Product Dimensions: 13 x 1.8 x 19.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 63,952 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
`For once not a self-help book but a help others book ... It's a potentially life-changing book, not just for the reader but for millions of others.'
--British Airways' Business Life magazine
`A philosophical and practical call to arms that invites us to consider our obligations to those trapped in extreme poverty.'
--The Times
--British Airways' Business Life magazine
`A philosophical and practical call to arms that invites us to consider our obligations to those trapped in extreme poverty.'
--The Times
Product Description
The End of Poverty meets Nudge in an empowering, life-changing manifesto
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Peter Singer has worked out how to end poverty, with change left over. On a sliding scale of giving in which 90 per cent of us give away just 1% of our incomes, and the richest give a little more, we'd have a trillion dollar pot that would be enough to meet all the Millennium Development Goals eight times.
For an average gift of around $200 per person per year in the rich world, poverty would be swept away. So why haven't we done it yet? What's stopping us? These the questions Singer tackles in 'The Life You Can Save: Acting now to end world poverty'.
As an ethicist and philosopher, his gift is to ask provocative questions - the kind that are penetrating, even borderline offensive in their implications. He lines up moral arguments that you couldn't disagree with, and before you know it you've argued yourself into something you don't want to believe, saying you shouldn't save for retirement, or that it's wrong to love your own children more than other people's. It's very clever, if you like that kind of intellectual trickery, and I imagine Singer makes a great professor at Princeton. If you just thought you were reading a book about aid and giving, you might find it rather frustrating.
There's more here besides moral philosophy however. There are chapters on the psychology of giving, an analysis of how much it actually costs to save a life, and who does it best. There's a great section on how to encourage a culture of giving, including the quite brilliant suggestion of `opt-out' philanthropy.
The book cops out a little at the end, soft-pedalling the call to personal action, and it lacks the historical background that could have added more depth. It could have benefitted from engaging with the spiritual traditions that have sought to foster a culture of giving (which is all of them) rather than sticking to its humanist guns and trying to re-invent the wheel.
Still, this is a probing enquiry into what we value and a challenging call to more intelligent giving. I just can't guarantee that you won't find it annoying.
For an average gift of around $200 per person per year in the rich world, poverty would be swept away. So why haven't we done it yet? What's stopping us? These the questions Singer tackles in 'The Life You Can Save: Acting now to end world poverty'.
As an ethicist and philosopher, his gift is to ask provocative questions - the kind that are penetrating, even borderline offensive in their implications. He lines up moral arguments that you couldn't disagree with, and before you know it you've argued yourself into something you don't want to believe, saying you shouldn't save for retirement, or that it's wrong to love your own children more than other people's. It's very clever, if you like that kind of intellectual trickery, and I imagine Singer makes a great professor at Princeton. If you just thought you were reading a book about aid and giving, you might find it rather frustrating.
There's more here besides moral philosophy however. There are chapters on the psychology of giving, an analysis of how much it actually costs to save a life, and who does it best. There's a great section on how to encourage a culture of giving, including the quite brilliant suggestion of `opt-out' philanthropy.
The book cops out a little at the end, soft-pedalling the call to personal action, and it lacks the historical background that could have added more depth. It could have benefitted from engaging with the spiritual traditions that have sought to foster a culture of giving (which is all of them) rather than sticking to its humanist guns and trying to re-invent the wheel.
Still, this is a probing enquiry into what we value and a challenging call to more intelligent giving. I just can't guarantee that you won't find it annoying.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I think the reviewer below is incorrect in believing that the main aim of this work is to discredit capitalism. Rather, it puts into perspective the standards and luxuries which we are so accustomed to that we do not stop to consider how our standard of living compares to that of others. Singer is not calling for an end to capitalist society, but rather encouraging the reader to think how the money spent on anything from a bottle of water to a sports car could potentially help those in real need. By all means read the book critically, but learn the lesson Singer is really trying to give.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Believe it or not, I am very far from having any anti-capitalists sentmients and I really enjoyed the book, found it intellectually inspiring and impactful on my personal giving.
Some time ago I have decided to donate part of my income, but finally did not do so, because of insecurity about where my donation could have the largest impact and because of lack of information on the effectiveness of different NGOs. The book gives examples of effective NGOs that can save a life in one of the poorest countries for less than 1000$. On the same issue I found givewell.org extremely useful, which has been mentioned several times throughout the book and is dedicated to identify the most effective charities by applying scientific methodology and giving a wealth of information on their website to anybody interested in effective giving.
It is difficult to argue that there are organizations that can save the life of a person in a poor country for less than 1000$. Mentioning this fact should not be considered as an insult. Neither thinking it through in a brilliant, convincing and easy to understand analysis, which takes into consideration different points of view and arguments.
In addition the book contains a wealth of very interesting statistical data from different areas about poverty and giving. It also discusses the arguments given by critics of aid.
I highly recommend this book to anybody dealing with any of the questions:
- whether to donate,
- how much to donate
- to whom to donate
and also to everybody who thinks to already have found a satisfying answer to any of these questions.
Some time ago I have decided to donate part of my income, but finally did not do so, because of insecurity about where my donation could have the largest impact and because of lack of information on the effectiveness of different NGOs. The book gives examples of effective NGOs that can save a life in one of the poorest countries for less than 1000$. On the same issue I found givewell.org extremely useful, which has been mentioned several times throughout the book and is dedicated to identify the most effective charities by applying scientific methodology and giving a wealth of information on their website to anybody interested in effective giving.
It is difficult to argue that there are organizations that can save the life of a person in a poor country for less than 1000$. Mentioning this fact should not be considered as an insult. Neither thinking it through in a brilliant, convincing and easy to understand analysis, which takes into consideration different points of view and arguments.
In addition the book contains a wealth of very interesting statistical data from different areas about poverty and giving. It also discusses the arguments given by critics of aid.
I highly recommend this book to anybody dealing with any of the questions:
- whether to donate,
- how much to donate
- to whom to donate
and also to everybody who thinks to already have found a satisfying answer to any of these questions.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Interesting, slightly infuriating
Singer's book is an unusual melange of ethical philosophizing, aid statistics and personal stories. He begins the book with some arguments for correct ehthical standards, pointing... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Alexander Sokol
Well intentioned, but an ultimately contrived and petty attack on...
I work for the Red Cross and approached this book with an open mind. Whilst there is undeniably useful, and hard-hitting, advice here, I couldn't take it seriously for the... Read more
Published on 24 April 2010 by ric03
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