I have a suspicion that the point of “long term investment” is that it gives you a lot of money, and, supposedly, you are a special genius, who knows how to spend the money to help the world, better than anyone else.
Would you rather have $1000 or $2000 to spend on improving the world? And if you have the option of spending $1000 now or $2000 in ten years, which do you think would allow you to improve the world best? That in a nutshell is the argument for investing, and it doesn’t rely on [flattery arguments?} any more than any other argument for something that most people disagree with.
Would you rather have $1000 or $2000 to spend on improving the world?
Part of my point is that I would rather not spend any money and leave the spending to other people (e.g. to whoever is giving me all that money). I have no reason to believe that my spending would be more efficient than theirs.
And if you have the option of spending $1000 now or $2000 in ten years, which do you think would allow you to improve the world best?
No idea. There are a few obvious cases where $1000 now is far superior (e.g. if I care about saving some endangered animal, I should spend $1000 now since in 10 years it may already be extinct), but those are a bit special. Regarding other forms of charity, I don’t really know how much goodness they create compared to investment. But it seems reasonable to me that the two are comparable.
Would you rather have $1000 or $2000 to spend on improving the world? And if you have the option of spending $1000 now or $2000 in ten years, which do you think would allow you to improve the world best? That in a nutshell is the argument for investing, and it doesn’t rely on [flattery arguments?} any more than any other argument for something that most people disagree with.
Part of my point is that I would rather not spend any money and leave the spending to other people (e.g. to whoever is giving me all that money). I have no reason to believe that my spending would be more efficient than theirs.
No idea. There are a few obvious cases where $1000 now is far superior (e.g. if I care about saving some endangered animal, I should spend $1000 now since in 10 years it may already be extinct), but those are a bit special. Regarding other forms of charity, I don’t really know how much goodness they create compared to investment. But it seems reasonable to me that the two are comparable.