There is a growing criticism for aid as a tool to lift the impoverished. Critics such as Dambisa Moyo in her book Dead Aid point out that it creates dependency and interferes with the ability of people to find their own solutions. However, it is well-established that poverty traps have pulled back efforts by the poor to achieve a better life. Jeffrey Sachs, in his book, The end of poverty, discusses how poverty can be eliminated in 20 years if the world commits around 195 billion per year to foreign aid.
But before there is a consensus reached regarding whether aid is effective or not, it would be wise to discuss why we want to aid people who mostly will never have any kind of interactions with us.
Those in favour of aid and donate themselves may be called altruistic. Altruism is defined as the disinterested and selfless concern for the well-being of others. Helping the poor has been one of the most associated acts with altruism.
However, it is a matter of debate whether any action done under free will[1] can be done selflessly. Even actions which you perceive to be selfless on your behalf are driven by self-interest. Say for e.g., you help a beggar. Seems like an altruistic activity indeed. Yet, the action of helping the beggar was done as you wanted to do it for your own satisfaction.
Any action, performed when one has the freedom to choose whether to do it or not can be called ‘selfish’. Although, generally speaking, selfish has a negative connotation, so it would be better to use terms like self-interest and/or self-motivated.
People who give aid are driven by their desire to help those who live difficult lives. Even if they gain no tangible benefits from helping those living in a different continent, the satisfaction obtained by fulfilling their desire of helping those they feel deserve their help is a reward in itself.
Even if altruism is well-meaning, it is often the case that the aid does not really reach to those who need it. Or the money gets wasted in transition and is not utilized effectively by the receivers. A way to mitigate this can be done with the aid (pun intended) of effective altruism, where instead of giving cash directly, useful products which the poor can not afford is given[2]
Why must we focus on eliminating poverty when we are well off? Because of the various intangible benefits. Poverty results in a lack of knowledge and other resources, leading to poor people becoming easily susceptible to misinformation and thus involve themselves in antisocial activities like committing crime etc.
There are both moral as well as economic reasons to help the poor. Even if there is no clear answer to what is the best way to provide help (to give aid or not do something else), knowing why we should help gives that little extra effort in finding out the right solutions by providing a reason.
[1] Whether we actually have free will is another topic for discussion. Here free will is defined loosely.
[2] An e.g. of effective altruism- Mosquito nets for African villages. Malaria is one of the leading causes of death in Africa.
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That one article that shows you the positive connotation of even being selfish. Or atleast not negative. I may relate a lot, but the article puts it forward well. Great read!