
Peter Singer: Does Helping the Planet Hurt the Poor? - eugenejen
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703779704576074333552233782.html?mod=WeekendHeader_Rotator
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kenyn
Singer is an amazing thinker.

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maxharris
Really? He seems awfully conventional to me.

He's relying on the same worn-out altruistic and sacrificial morality that has
dominated western culture for two millennia (keeping people poor and stupid
for much of that time.) Like everyone of his ilk, he doesn't question it or
even attempt to justify it.

It _isn't_ good to give up something that you find personally valuable for the
sake of something that you don't. What is good is what makes your own life
flourish (this can be [and often is] material goods, your spouse, family and
friends, your work, etc.) A sacrificial action that Singer may approve of,
such as, "I'd be happiest designing microcontrollers, but they tend to be used
in consumer goods that 'harm the environment', so I'll drop out of my
engineering program and volunteer in the Peace Corps instead" is actually a
profoundly evil action by proper morality. Each of us owns ourselves; we are
not moral slaves to anyone, nor should we be.

