Should my "right" to own a third car outweigh the right of an African baby to eat or should I ignore and deny

The only connection is a moral one: ‘All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing’

There is a psychology principle (I don't recall it now, sorry) that leaves you with the idea of having nothing to do with something that you are not witnessing or that your mind doesn't see as your direct responsibility.

If you are a humanist, you may solve the dilemma based on the "best good" or the "least bad", or what's more helpful for the majority.

You may "need" your third car for many reasons: if those reasons lead you to make some good that at the end will help to stop poverty or suffering, that's OK. If you are buying your third car just for fun or for a false concept of what "need" is, and you are giving your back to all those in need, then is morally wrong.

Society has no ways to force anybody to give the extra money to those in need. Taxes don't count, as you are not directly deciding how your government is going to use them.

A lot of people understand the word "right" wrongly. They think that because they earned that extra money, they can have whatever they want and they have no responsibilities towards others (humans, animals, the environment).

Some people come up with the "brilliant" idea that those poor kids are their parents responsibility, that they are adults and that they should have decided not to have babies in the first place if they couldn't feed them....obviously these "smart" ones have no clue of what real poverty is. They don't understand that many of those kids don't have parents (they have died from AIDS, illeness, hunger and poverty themselves), some "parents" are kids themselves that had no access to birth control (thanks to the catholic missionaries), health, sexual education or education of any kind.

If you have extra money and no debts or family to feed, find a good use for that money, unless your third car is to help somebody else too.

If you worked for it, you have the right. If you want to give it up that is your right.

How much of the money that the US sends to the UN actually reaches the starving people?

You can feed them all you want but if they aren't willing to change their own lives, nothing you do will ever make a difference.

You can just look at our country. The inner city schools have not changed. Wealthier middle class move in, and then move right back out, because they can't take the crime. We have businesses there and crime is still rampant.

Well, if you are truly deeply troubled by the inequality between the rich and poor, or the haves and have not's you are certainly free to sell your car and donate the money to the Christian children's fund or some other worthy fund.

There is a lot of injustice in the world. It is most likely beyond any of us to fix it.

Each of us has to deal with the problem in the way we fell best about. . .

Good luck.

It's difficult for me to judge whether man's compassion for others or man's inhumanity towards mankind will be the destruction of the human race.

We live in a world where over population is polluting our environment and changing the weather. Advances man has made in engineering and medicine has caused the population to flourish beyond the resources available to sustain live as we evolved into it.

Providing food and sustenance for people living in an area of the globe that cannot support them only adds to the pending disaster worldwide.

It is difficult for me to decide whether our virtues or our transgressions will lead to our extinction.

Ignore. IF you really cared you would be over there, not here. We send billions of tax money that U.S. workers earn to those countries to support corrupt dictators. If all the people and numbers you state are starving, how the hell , or why the hell do they keep having "starving children"?

That depends on whether your "right" to own a 3rd car outweighs your moral obligation to help those less fortunate. Really, it's your choice to make and I am not in a position to judge. A higher power has that authority...

Some of us choose to live simply so that others may simply live. Most, however, place their wants over the needs of others. Gluttony is a moral sin in the eyes of most Christians, yet most engage in it without repentance.

African parents have a right to feed the babies that they bring into the world . They also have a right to not bring babies into the world that they can't feed .

I feel very sorry for anyone who has it tough going , but the grown-ups have to accept responsibility for their actions . Their idea that they're willing to bang out the kids so long as someone else will take care of them , goes only so far .

You live the way you want and let others live as they please.

You want to throw more money at third world countries?

Ever wonder why all of our country's aid money goes to countries that are chock full of heroin, oil, precious metals or are on a desired trade route?

We even donated gobs of cash to the Taliban....while we were fighting them!

Afghanistan heroin production is almost eliminated after Taliban takes over...we invade and now heroin levels are higher than ever.

Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq....Heroin, heroin, oil, trade routes, pipeline routes....

Foreign aid my foot.

It has nothing to do with you buying a car, that always provides a job for people.

Another case of the UN failure! We have fat cat politicians in the UN and it doesn't function right,,or they would have helped some one sometime. But your article is so bleak it's as if no one has ever been helped ever.

False choice...

BTW...Why do you need any cars...If you feel that strongly...sell 1 or both and give the proceeds to a charity that serves Africa...

AND you will be delighted to Know that our President Bush has given MORE to African nations than ANY OTHER president in American history...