Creating an Ethics Case Study
The University of Arizona Global Campus
PHI208: Ethics and Moral Reasoning
Introduction
, The “Effective Altruism” study that was provided in class is the study on which I will be
basing my work for this project. The concept of “effective altruism” suggests that people should
give away most of their money to support the efforts of others who are less fortunate or who live
in nations that are less developed in comparison to their own. A young philanthropist named
William MacAskill was instrumental in the establishment of this movement. As a true believer of
this movement, William MacAskill even puts himself in a position of relative poverty, earning
only $26,000 British pounds per year, and donates the rest of his income to charitable causes.
According to his calculations, it costs around $4,000 to save one person’s life (Lewis-Kraus, p.
48). In my opinion, it is a very noble act to be able to donate many of one’s income to improve
the life of another. This is a utilitarian notion that would be much simpler to implement if more
people participated, as no one would be required to contribute most of the necessary funds. If
some of the world’s billionaires transferred even a modest portion of their wealth to all of
humanity, world hunger would be eradicated. As Homi Kharas says in a future development blog
piece, “Until recently, even the wealthiest individuals did not have enough money to make a
material dent in global problems, let alone “solve” them. Compared to the size of national
economies, or the budgets of the governments of national economies, their wealth appeared
small. This is no longer the case. There are 2,755 billionaires in the world today, with an
estimated wealth of $13.2 trillion (about $41,000 per person in the US). Even just one percent of
this wealth (which is equivalent to a tax rate of 15-20 percent on the accrued income that
billionaires have received with returns of 5-7 percent per year) would yield a flow of $130 billion
(about $400 per person in the US) per year.... I estimate that $95 billion (about $290 per person
in the US) would be enough to eradicate extreme poverty for all the 708 million people in the
world living below the international threshold of $1.90 per person per day. Yes, a one percent
The University of Arizona Global Campus
PHI208: Ethics and Moral Reasoning
Introduction
, The “Effective Altruism” study that was provided in class is the study on which I will be
basing my work for this project. The concept of “effective altruism” suggests that people should
give away most of their money to support the efforts of others who are less fortunate or who live
in nations that are less developed in comparison to their own. A young philanthropist named
William MacAskill was instrumental in the establishment of this movement. As a true believer of
this movement, William MacAskill even puts himself in a position of relative poverty, earning
only $26,000 British pounds per year, and donates the rest of his income to charitable causes.
According to his calculations, it costs around $4,000 to save one person’s life (Lewis-Kraus, p.
48). In my opinion, it is a very noble act to be able to donate many of one’s income to improve
the life of another. This is a utilitarian notion that would be much simpler to implement if more
people participated, as no one would be required to contribute most of the necessary funds. If
some of the world’s billionaires transferred even a modest portion of their wealth to all of
humanity, world hunger would be eradicated. As Homi Kharas says in a future development blog
piece, “Until recently, even the wealthiest individuals did not have enough money to make a
material dent in global problems, let alone “solve” them. Compared to the size of national
economies, or the budgets of the governments of national economies, their wealth appeared
small. This is no longer the case. There are 2,755 billionaires in the world today, with an
estimated wealth of $13.2 trillion (about $41,000 per person in the US). Even just one percent of
this wealth (which is equivalent to a tax rate of 15-20 percent on the accrued income that
billionaires have received with returns of 5-7 percent per year) would yield a flow of $130 billion
(about $400 per person in the US) per year.... I estimate that $95 billion (about $290 per person
in the US) would be enough to eradicate extreme poverty for all the 708 million people in the
world living below the international threshold of $1.90 per person per day. Yes, a one percent
