My Own View on the Opinions of Peter Singer in Relation to the Traditional Thanksgiving Celebration

Peter Singer tries to make a very convincing argument on the actions of people in the world. Singer says the amounts of people living in affluent nations are duty bound to help those who are less fortune in other nations or their own nation. I agree with Singers assumption that suffering and death is bad. I also agree that if we are able to prevent something bad from happening, without sacrificing something that is moral important to us, we should do so. I do not, however, agree the ideas that Singer deduces from this. He says we ought to give money to people suffer up to the point where we can still be secure, and that we ought not to spend on items that are not for basic needs.

From these conclusions I disagree with Singer. I feel that he would be opposed to Thanksgiving because of the amount of money spent on this occasion. Even though the amount of money for this holiday might be relatively low compared to other holidays, I feel he would disagree with our traditional ways of celebrating it.

I feel that Thanksgiving and the traditions that go along with it are moral. Thanksgiving is a time were we give thanks for having food and shelter. We should not feel that we are immoral people because we have food and are thankful for it. Singer feels that the money spent on the turkey and all of the fixings would be better off spent on starving people. I agree with Singer that if we had extravagant meals like this often or at least more than a couple a times a year then he is right, we should give this money away.

Although I also feel that since this is a one time of year activity and that we do not indulge ourselves in meals similar to this everyday then there is no need for that money to be donated to others. This may sound shocking, but I feel that celebrations like this are what keep some people in our society going in their tough times, and that people need to indulge and treat themselves occasionally. If this was a common or everyday celebration then I would say, never should we be spending this much indulging ourselves when we can be helping others. People who spend enormous amounts of money indulging themselves should take that money and donate it, but not those who do these kinds of actions scarcely.

Another argument I make for the good of the traditional Thanksgiving celebration is that it is part of our society and culture. It unite people and makes people feel like they have to give thanks for all that they have. For if everyone was on the same level in life, no one would feel the need to give thanks to God. I conclude with the statement that the economy is also a reason we need to not give large amounts savings away. For if everyone was eventually on the same level there would be no need for certain jobs and missions of charities, and those people would have to go into an already struggling economy right now and try to find a job, and could end up in the same suffering situation as the person they were trying to help.