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JonahSinick comments on Some reservations about Singer's child-in-the-pond argument - Less Wrong
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I don't own a suit anywhere near that expensive, and I don't think that most people in the developed world do either. Do you?
Because of diminishing marginal utility, the more you donate, the greater the personal cost becomes. The personal cost of a pair of shoes is a lot higher when you can't afford to replace it than it is for most people in the developed world at the margin. So the common sense intuition in Singer's hypothetical starts to break down progressively more as you donate more
This relates to my post, which is about the personal cost per life saved being a lot higher than in Singer's hypothetical.
No, I don't own a suit at all, but there are many other possible examples. Perhaps instead I am wearing a watch that my mother gave to me before she died and it has great sentimental value, or perhaps I have some document, hidden away in an inner pocket, that would be expensive to replace or whose destruction risks getting me fired. The exact details don't seem that important. I don't happen to have either of these items, any more than I have shoes worth over $20, but it is not too hard to imagine.
It's true that, by the point I have made my own life as unpleasant or unsafe as that of the people I am trying to help, diminishing marginal utility means I can definitely stop without guilt. Realistically, I am not going to go that far. I am not a saint, and if I accept the obligation but stop giving earlier I will feel guilty and hypocritical and awful about doing so.
I gave the Unger example at the end of my post.
I agree with Pablo.
My post is relevant to triaging with respect to different altruistic efforts.