Poverty is an inexorable natural condition attributed to human beings. Apparently, the current total population of people living in poverty is significantly large across the entire world. Most poor people are identified to be living below $1.25 per day (United Nations and Office for ECOSOC Support and Coordination, 231). The gap between the rich and the poor is widening day by day. Due to poverty, the poor are more prone to diseases which have resulted in a high mortality rate while on the other hand the wealthy and the middle class live a healthy life free from diseases because of their economic stability. The poor are characterized to be experiencing a scarcity of economic resources. However, there are rich and middle-class people wealthy enough who can afford to give a helping hand to the poor by donating their extra money to them in order to uplift them from their extreme scarcity. This paper discusses whether the rich and middle-class people should help the poor by donating money to them in order to save their lives or not.
Human life is very important and needs to be valued. Therefore, first world citizens should take an active role to help save the lives of the poor by donating money to them. People living in poverty are actually undernourished, do not have safe drinking water, lack basic healthcare services and also being unable to take children to school (Polak, 62). They struggle to survive while others even succumb to minor preventable and curable diseases due to a lack of basic health services and their limited economic resources. The first world citizens should take up a humanitarian role to donate money to these poor people willingly which will help improve their economic status raising their financial status that would eventually enable them to afford medical services, take their children to school and also cater for their essential basic needs (Singer, 48). Giving this aid will eventually help the people to be healthy, strong and be able to be productive for the economy of the country.
Legally, first-world citizens are not obliged to donate money to the poor but practically it is their moral obligation to donate money in order to help the poor (Singer,64). In every community, a vast disparity in social living conditions results in discontent, and essentially poverty gives rise to crime. The rich, middle class and the poor live in the same society whereby they all interact in. All of these social classes would like to live in harmony but to achieve that, the rich and the middle-class people have to play a role in uplifting the living standards of the poor by donating the money. Donation of money to the people will help to improve their living standards as they will be able to meet their essential basic needs and as a result, the rate of crime attributed to poverty will decrease and therefore everyone will get to live in harmony altogether in the society (Piston, 112). To some extent in a democratic society, the government has the mandate to protect and provide for its people; therefore it is obliged to tax the wealthy so as to raise funds for providing social services to the community such as the provision of free healthcare services, free education and clean and safe environment for all. The government has to develop laws that push for a certain mandatory contribution from the rich most probably through taxation in order to provide for the needy as they push for equity among all citizens thus saving the lives of the poor and closing the gap between the rich and poor.
Donations from the rich to the poor should be encouraged since the rich owe the poor. The poor in one way or another contribute to the success of the rich people. For instance, you find that the poor work for the rich in their companies or business and thus help them to make profitable returns. With regards to this, the rich owe the poor and therefore need to give back to society especially to benefit the poor (Westley et al., 38). Moreover, most rich people were not born rich. They started poor and worked hard until they achieved success. Giving back to society through the donation of money that will help improve and save the lives of the poor is a way of humbling themselves and acknowledging their roots. Therefore, the rich and the well-off middle-class people should make donations willingly in good faith to help save a fellow human, especially in a time of critical need for assistance and not simply for a show-off.
On the contrary, first world people should not donate money to the poor. Donating money to the poor makes them more dependable and lazy to work for themselves or at least be innovative and come up with strategic alternatives to earn a living which is harmful to the economy of the country (Piston, 7). The poor should be taught how to fish rather than being given the fish itself. Money should not be shared but rather generated and therefore everyone is entitled to work for it than just depending on other people’s success. Just to recap, transferring all responsibilities of the poor to wealthy people does not make a difference.
Making the wealthy make a mandatory contribution would be socialism. Wealth is supposed to be earned and not given (Polak, 76). Therefore, the rich should not donate money to the poor but rather grant them jobs in order to earn money for themselves that they can use to sustain their living. Giving jobs and opportunities to the poor for earning some source of income is more important and effective in improving the lives of the poor as it motivates them and gives them hopes of being a better person by being self-dependent rather than depending on aid from others. Granting jobs and opportunities for the poor will not only improve the living standards of the poor but also contribute to increased productivity that eventually accounts for economic growth.
To sum up, the rich and the middle-class people should donate money to the needy to save their lives. Life is precious and every effort should be put to safeguard and sustain life at all costs. Therefore, we are all human beings and humans have a moral responsibility to stand up for each other in times of need. The rich should give their extra money to the needy rather than spend it on lavish commodities. Donating money helps to save the lives of the poor who have a scarcity of economic resources which has always made them prone to various diseases that they eventually succumb to since they cannot afford quality health care services. Moreover, talking of granting jobs to them is a good move but there are not enough jobs to accommodate all of them. Therefore, as much as the first world people should grant job opportunities to the poor, they should also donate money to them.