Ethics 8th Edition by Barbara MacKinnon,Andrew Fiala

Exercise 2

Which Poverty Matters? Madison is a successful businesswoman who has become convinced that she ought to give a substantial amount of her earnings to help those in extreme poverty in the developing world. Her brother, Thomas, a local college student, is not persuaded that such donations are a good idea. "It just makes people ask for more handouts later," he says. "And besides," he adds, "there are a lot of poor people here in our city: homeless people living on the streets. And I'm not doing too well myself. You ought to give me some of your charity so I can pay for college. I'm going to be swamped with student loan debt."
How should Madison reply? Does she have an obligation to help her brother pay for school, to help the homeless in her city, or to help those in poverty in other countries? Should her proximity or relationship to these various people make a difference here? Or is Thomas right that handouts don't help?