The previous chapters have focused on the nature and extent of our moral responsibilities to benefit others, and on how to make such responsibilities less demanding. But we must now consider whether the assumption that we can solve some of the problems created by global poverty – or, more generally, by the unmet needs of others – is a reasonable one. If it is not possible to help people, then on the assumption that Ought Implies Can we have no responsibility to do so.

Why might one doubt that it’s possible to aid others? Some of the reasons are more or less inherent in the very notions of giving and receiving; others are tied to the specific conditions and circumstances surrounding programs and policies designed to aid poor people in developing countries, and sometimes also in developed countries. I begin by examining the nature of giving and receiving in very general terms, and then look at aid in the economic, social, and political contexts most relevant to poverty today.