Even if you’re an anarchist who thinks taxation is theft, to say willful nonpayment of taxes to donate is effective altruism is absurd, the consequences of this are just obviously very bad, both the idea and the advocacy. One publicized case of a person willfully refusing to pay their taxes in the name of effective altruism can do much more damage to it than many such people donating a bit more, and even if a particular case is invisible, the general practice is visible (Newcomb issues). Consider how much damage SBF and FTX have done to the causes of effective altruism, pandemic prevention, AI safety. There are billions of dollars committed to effective charity, and thousands of people trying to do good effectively, and people tying commonsense wrongdoing to it with crazy rationales has a serious damaging multiplier effect on the whole.
Any dollar donated through this method is in expectation going to cost multiple dollars worth of similar donations (plausibly a huge number) equivalent through such damage. It would be much better for the world if tax scofflaws were spending their taxes due on gambling or alcohol rather than effective altruism.
Even if you’re an anarchist who thinks taxation is theft, to say willful nonpayment of taxes to donate is effective altruism is absurd, the consequences of this are just obviously very bad, both the idea and the advocacy. One publicized case of a person willfully refusing to pay their taxes in the name of effective altruism can do much more damage to it than many such people donating a bit more, and even if a particular case is invisible, the general practice is visible (Newcomb issues). Consider how much damage SBF and FTX have done to the causes of effective altruism, pandemic prevention, AI safety. There are billions of dollars committed to effective charity, and thousands of people trying to do good effectively, and people tying commonsense wrongdoing to it with crazy rationales has a serious damaging multiplier effect on the whole.
Any dollar donated through this method is in expectation going to cost multiple dollars worth of similar donations (plausibly a huge number) equivalent through such damage. It would be much better for the world if tax scofflaws were spending their taxes due on gambling or alcohol rather than effective altruism.