UN General Assembly
1977

70. I am fully aware that highlighting the greater measure of suffering in the poorer countries is not going to heighten moral sensibilities in the developed countries to a point where they would be willing to undertake sacrifices on behalf of their more desperate brethren. This is as true of rich countries as of the richer developing countries: nobody wants to help anybody else at their own expense. It is a sad fact of life that in lean times—such as those we are going through—the milk of human kindness dries up. Moral appeals make greater impact only if they are also empirically valid. Therefore the main thrust of my thesis and argument is not that the rich nations should help the poorer nations as a moral obligation but that, by helping the developing countries, they would in fact be helping themselves.