Further Consideration of the Issues:
Actually, Singer's use of the term absolute affluence is not perfectly analogous (because the corresponding analog to the conditions of absolute poverty are those of extravagant wealth not working class wealth), but the idea itself is still valid just the same. The point is simply that once human society in part of the world reached the point where even most of those considered "poor" receive adequate nutrition, shelter, and the most basic emergency medical care (etc.), a moral duty arises whereby helping the less fortunate should be more important than self-centered concerns about increasing one's wealth relative to others in the manner that different levels of affluence are defined in wealthier nations.
It is important that Singer acknowledges the difference between ideals that people should uphold and ideals that people must uphold, because it is likely impossible to establish a logical justification for compelled charity, regardless of the moral imperative.
In fact, U.S. law also recognizes that distinction as well. To use Singer's first example of the rescue of the drowning child, there is absolutely no legal duty to conduct any such rescue, provided that the non-rescuer is not related to or in charge of the child and had no part in causing the child to fall into the water in the first place. However, there certainly is a moral duty to assist the child whether or not that duty is enforceable at law.
Likewise, charity in the form of assisting the poor of other nations cannot be mandated. However, from an objective moral perspective, the situation is analogous to the individual faced with the obvious moral duty to intervene to prevent the child from drowning. Singer correctly points out that the lifeboat ethics theory is inapplicable simply because none of the assistance to Third-World nations at issue poses any threat to the welfare of more affluent nations. Similarly, the notion of caring for the poor of this country is specious on two different levels: first, by virtue of the faulty comparison between the relative poverty faced by First-World poor and the absolute poverty of Third-World poor; second, by unfounded a-priori assumption that similarity in...
That may be particularly true in contemporary American society where the cumulative costs associated with healthcare could potentially bankrupt the nation (and/or bankrupt many individuals and families) by virtue of the ever-increasing costs generally attributable to the very flawed third-party payer system in which most medical services are furnished through for-profit health insurance companies with much of the remainder funded by the funds and other resources of federal and
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