Black Humor
Do the wealthy have an obligation to help the poor?
As we enter the millennium, the gap between rich and poor has never been wider. While few people have more money than is possible to spend in a lifetime, a majority is not able to provide even for their most basic needs. 80% of the world’s population lives on less than $10 a day. This situation raises the issue of whether the affluent people of the world have an obligation to help the poor. I say people should be able to relay on others for help. If you have the means to help those impoverished without making huge sacrifice on your own part, then you should help out those in need. Whether you donate once or for the rest of your life, you are doing something that help the lives of others. We should not be bystanders of poverty, otherwise the Bystander Effect will consume humanity. The Bystander Effect is a social psychological phenomenon that refers to cases in which individuals do not offer help to people in need. The probability of help is inversely related to the number of bystanders. In other words, the greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is that people will help. The Bystander Effect is caused by the idea of Diffusion of Responsibility. Diffusion of Responsibility is when people believe there are other people around, therefore someone else will take the responsibility to help out, leaving them off the hook to help out. We as individuals need to take it upon ourselves to help others and not let the idea of Diffusion of Responsibility consume our minds. We need to squash the Bystander Effect and make it a thing of the past.
Humanity has accidentally allowed this inequality to happen and it is up to us to fix it. As a civilized society, we must ensure those less fortunate are helped, educated, healed and fed. Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century not being able to read or write. We need to change this statistic. Children who are born into vulnerable families do not ask to be born
As we enter the millennium, the gap between rich and poor has never been wider. While few people have more money than is possible to spend in a lifetime, a majority is not able to provide even for their most basic needs. 80% of the world’s population lives on less than $10 a day. This situation raises the issue of whether the affluent people of the world have an obligation to help the poor. I say people should be able to relay on others for help. If you have the means to help those impoverished without making huge sacrifice on your own part, then you should help out those in need. Whether you donate once or for the rest of your life, you are doing something that help the lives of others. We should not be bystanders of poverty, otherwise the Bystander Effect will consume humanity. The Bystander Effect is a social psychological phenomenon that refers to cases in which individuals do not offer help to people in need. The probability of help is inversely related to the number of bystanders. In other words, the greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is that people will help. The Bystander Effect is caused by the idea of Diffusion of Responsibility. Diffusion of Responsibility is when people believe there are other people around, therefore someone else will take the responsibility to help out, leaving them off the hook to help out. We as individuals need to take it upon ourselves to help others and not let the idea of Diffusion of Responsibility consume our minds. We need to squash the Bystander Effect and make it a thing of the past.
Humanity has accidentally allowed this inequality to happen and it is up to us to fix it. As a civilized society, we must ensure those less fortunate are helped, educated, healed and fed. Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century not being able to read or write. We need to change this statistic. Children who are born into vulnerable families do not ask to be born
Cited: * "Quotes About Poverty." (372 Quotes). N.p., n.d. Web. 21 May 2013. <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/poverty>. * "Quotes About Helping." About.com Quotations. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 May 2013. <http://quotations.about.com/cs/inspirationquotes/a/Helping4.htm>.