Topics Children

Question Recently I read an article by someone who claimed that the biggest problem we face in the US today in trying to help people in need is that parents care more about their own children than they do about other people's children. She elaborated on that point more but basically her conclusion was that until we could get people to spend as much money on the welfare of other people's children as they do on their own children we will never make enough progress. These assertions seemed to be completely serious as well. There was no indication that it was meant as satire. Are their any philosophical underpinnings to support such claims? it seems to me only right and natural that parents would be more invested in the welfare of their own children than the welfare of people they don't know and have never met.

Accepted:
April 18, 2013

Comments

I agree. The point is that if we try to spread our concern for welfare too broadly, we may end up with an inferior conclusion. We know or at least think we know what is in the interests of our children. It is likely to maximize welfare if we act in what we take to be their interests, directly, and of course we should devote some of our resources to other children also. These are not unconnected, since the welfare of our children is linked with that of everyone's else's children, presumably. A policy of extreme selfishness is liable to place the individual's children at some stage at the mercy of those less fortunate seeking revenge.