'What if I told you that you can save a life, even many lives? Do you have a bottle of water or a can of soda on the table beside you as you read this book? If you are paying for something to drink when safe drinking water comes out of the tap, you have money to spend on things you don't really need. Around the world, a billion people struggle to live each day on less than you paid for that drink. Because they can't afford even the most basic health care for their families, their children may die from simple, easily treatable diseases like diarrhoea. You can help them.'
The Life You Can Save is the book that Peter Singer has wanted to write for thirty years. It is his argument about how we should respond to hunger and poverty. We live in a unique moment in history where the rich can genuinely help the poor to escape relentless poverty. But this will only happen if the rich care enough to make some small personal sacrifices.
