May 28, 2013
Effective Altruism for BHL’s
In Peter Singer’s new TED talk, he tries to answer the question of how to give most effectively. The talk starts with a short summary of his famous argument for…
Posts filed under poverty
April 30, 2013
Eudaimonism and Non-Aggression
There are two ways one can go wrong with regard to the non-aggression principle (NAP). One way to go wrong is to treat the NAP as a rigid, out-of-context principle…
April 29, 2013
Help Caplan Help the Poor
Bryan Caplan doesn’t think he has a moral duty to help the poor. I disagree. But, duty or no, Bryan wants to help them anyway. And he wants your help to do…
August 18, 2012
The Trolley Non-Problem?
Over at Philosophy etc, Bradley Gabbard argues that a widespread intuition about the trolley problem can justify compulsory aid to the global poor. Here is the trolley problem: A runaway…
July 26, 2012
Caplan v. Gowder on Blaming the Poor
Poor people frequently make what appear to be stupid, self-destructive choices. For instance, there’s a distant cousin, Aaron, on my wife’s side. Aaron lacks a high school diploma and is always…
May 06, 2012
David Friedman on Social Justice and Utilitarianism
One of the themes in my recent conversation at Cato Unbound with David Friedman was whether utilitarianism or social justice is a better concept for thinking about the moral obligations…