10th Anniversary Edition The Life You Can Save

poor people are not working, it is probably because unemployment is higher in poor nations than in rich ones, and that is not the fault of the poor.

while thousands of children die each day, we spend money on things we take for granted and would hardly notice if they were not there. Is that wrong?

For Africa to end poverty by 2030, more than one person would need to escape poverty every second;

the same way, our willingness to help the poor can be reduced if we think that we would be doing more than our fair share. People considering giving a substantial portion of their disposable income can’t help but be aware that others, including those with a lot more disposable income, are not doing the same.

“the proportion of lives saved often carries more weight than the number of lives saved.”

We are also much less likely to help someone if the responsibility for helping does not rest entirely on us.

We seem to respond as if anything that leaves most of the people in the camp at risk is “futile”—although, of course, for the 1,500 who will be saved by the aid, and for their families and friends, the rescue is anything but futile, irrespective of the total number in the camp.

This “identifiable victim effect” leads to “the rule of rescue”: we will spend far more to rescue an identifiable victim than we will to save a “statistical life.”

Then a third group was provided with the general information, the photo, and the information about Rokia. That group gave more than the group that had received only the general information, but still gave less than the group that had received only the information about Rokia.2 Indeed, even adding a second identifiable child to the information about Rokia—while providing no general information—led to a lower average donation than when only one child was mentioned. The subjects of the experiment reported feeling stronger emotions when told about one child than when told about two children.3

Even if we agree with that, having a right to do something doesn’t settle the question of what you should do.