The Starving Child

If you were walking on a street one day and saw a starving, dying child, you would probably feel the need to do something about it. Buy the person something to eat, call the cops, or something. But if the person is dying somewhere else, and we know this happens, we feel utterly no moral imperative at all. So the suffering has to be in our face for us to care. Would you save somebody in your school or work for a few dollars? You probably would. But for some stranger? You still might. But you would keep saving people until you realize you don't have money left to buy yourself a new Xbox, then you'd stop. No such point exists where you give out so much money, it is morally correct to stop giving out money to save some people from death. It just becomes more inconvenient to you, but is your convenience worth their death? Every single thing you buy, you are accepting the opportunity cost of that purchase. Every $100 you spent could've been spent to prevent that starving kid from dying. It's not your problem? Of course not. I can do all sorts of very illegal things to you this instant, and if it were not for the law, it wouldn't really be my problem now, would it? Would you say, "not my problem" if you see a guy having a heart attack and you were the only witness? Out of sight, out of mind. No name, no face, no sleep lost.

There's this diffusion of responsibility. If many people can fix the issue, you feel less liable. When I was in psychology class, the teacher showed a video clip about a few psychological studies regarding the diffusion of responsibility. The people in the study saw (or in some cases heard) what seems to be somebody having a heart attack. You have one person in the room seeing this, and they run out for help. You have three people, and the three just sit there going 'oh my god'. This is why when people have a heart attack, medical training says to assign one specific person to call 911 instead of just yelling 'SOMEBODY CALL A MEDIC'.

How many people are in poverty today? In true poverty, not unemployment in the United States. Your bad day is their great day. You are too lazy to go to the store to get food to eat. Or, you're trying to eat less because you're getting fat. The guys over there don't have food to eat. Not my problem, I got dance classes, cya.

Not just you, of course. Everybody. Me as well. We're not programmed by evolution to be selfless. But I'm saying we are indirectly killing people all the time and we feel no remorse. I believe nobody can meet the standards of morality this sets. But if you're not going to donate money, the least you can do is the acknowledge the reality and not blatantly say 'it's not my problem'.