ABSTRACT
Who should bear the costs for eradicating absolute poverty? Setting aside the extreme position that it is the poor and only the poor themselves with whom all responsibility for improving their lot lies, two principal answers have been proposed. On the first view, what matters is the capacity to alleviate poverty. The task of fighting poverty is the duty of all those who are in a position to do so, and the extent of one’s obligation is basically a function of one’s capacity. 2 On the second view, what counts is one’s contribution to the causes of poverty. At least insofar as severe poverty results from an unjust global order, alleviating this effect is the duty of those who are involved in the primary cause, and the extent of one’s obligation is basically a function of one’s contribution to this cause. 3
