Moral Obligations

One of the questions that is fundamental to our current politics is what is the responsibility of the rich nations of the world.

For many reasons, most of which were related to technological advances, Western Nations, including the United States was able to capitalize and exploit poorer nations.

Now some might argue that the major colonial powers which were the Western Europeans were the primary exploiters, if you ignore what we did to the native Americans, and discount our involvement in the territories we acquired in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  

Of course the United States benefited from other factors such as its relatively safe location which spared it the devastation of the two World Wars. 

Now the choice is this.

Let the poor nations of the world fend as best they can, especially in combating the effects of climate change which was largely caused by the industrialization of the West and the age of the automobile or decide we have an obligation to help them.

Now that's an area that is fundamentally based on moral and ethical issues, not purely economic ones, although its also got some strong economic ones for the future.

Having much of the world too poor to be consumers or lead a decent life leads to fewer markets and more unrest, likely costing billions to contain them.

However, those possibilities are not short term.  The short term question is do the rich have a moral obligation to help the poor?

Our current administration has clearly come down opposed to that notion, both domestically as well as internationally.  I see there position pretty much as grab as much as you can and if you don't get enough its your own fault.

Of course they are not opposed to tilting the playing field in favor of those who already are successful, to make sure they get to keep everything they can.

Similarly it is obviously impossible for this administration to look on an agreement that incorporates the concept that the poorer nations need some help, therefore imposing an obligation on the richer nations as a "good" deal.  In short term dollars and cents it costs us more than we get.

The fact that we improve the world for all as a result is simply not important to them.

They have no sense of moral obligation.