The Importance of Giving to the Poor

We tend to assume that if we have money left over after meeting our needs and those of our dependents, we may spend it as we please. After you've foregoed those items and give another two hundred dollars though, is everything else you are spending on as important or nearly as important as preventing malaria? If the basic argument presented above is right, then what many of us consider acceptable behavior must be viewed in a new, more ominous light. Suddenly, the three premises laid out above are much harder to swallow. We may now be questioning whether a moral argument, and has such radically demanding implications, can possibly be sound.