Peter Singer knows how to confront you, to make you feel uncomfortable. If a person was walking down a road past a pond and saw a small child in trouble, most of them would jump in without a thought. But would they forgo some luxury to save a child on the other side of the world? The answer is no. In 2005, 4.2 million or 36.45% of Australian taxpayers claimed gift deductions of $1.55 billion. The average deduction was $370.83 - the cost of a few meals at a reasonable restaurant. For many of us, we feel we work hard for our money, that our first obligations should be to our families and ourselves. It is Singer’s aim in this book to convince us that if we are to live ethically, then we can and should be doing a lot more to help the poor.

Why don’t we give more? According to Singer, the main reasons are that we find it hard to identify with the poor who are largely anonymous, or if we give, we tend to help our own, or we feel the situation is hopeless and that we can make no difference, or it’s somebody else’s problem, or because our neighbours don’t so it wouldn’t be fair if we gave and they didn’t. Part of the problem in our society is that there is not a culture of giving and that much of what we give is not to help save people, but to institutions and organisations that bolster our already comfortable lifestyles. We need to create that culture, and people and organisations that do give need to speak about it. One of Singer’s controversial ideas is for employers to deduct 1% from their employees’ pay to donate to fight global poverty; employees could opt out but many may be inspired. It’s true that charity and aid is not always effective, but that should not be an argument for not giving – you may not be able to save the drowning child in the pond, but does that mean you shouldn’t try?

How much should we give? The UN’s Millennium Goals estimated that it would take $189 billion a year to reduce world poverty by half by 2015. Singer calculates that if the rich in the West (those starting on an income of roughly $100,000 or more) gave at a progressive rate starting at 5%, that would yield $138 trillion per anum – much more than needed to meet the Millennium Goals. If those earning less than $100,000 were to give 1%, then $150 trillion would be raised – ample money to cover not only the aid itself, but research and experimentation into what forms of aid work best.

Singer’s book is a call to arms, a call to radically change the way we view the world and our role in it. He asks us to cease being passive bystanders and take action. How many of us are prepared to do this and what impact would it have in our own societies when we forgo our bottled water and fancy meals? These are questions Singer doesn’t answer. At least, he says, give it a try … ‘then see how it feels. You may find it more rewarding than you imagined possible’. I know I’m going to try; you have to read this book to find out how…and everyone should.