I think the claim here could be summarized as: charities may have a vested interest in the problem they’re trying to solve (conflict on interest). However, it’s good to observe this isn’t always the case.
For example, I know volunteers that help the homeless. Everyone in the org is a volunteer, except the cook. If homelessness disappeared tomorrow, they could just take a rest day or go to the park etc.. This is a first prevention mechanism (minimizing vested interests).
Sometimes though you may need employees so that your organization is effective. In this case, they kind of need to pay a cook. It’s hard work, specialized work, workers are usually not high income and need the money. Maybe it would be ideal to find a volunteer cook, alas. In that case, there is still ethics. If the organization and people are effectively ethical, then they should not respond to the incentive by increasing homelessness (in any case… I think it’s fairly difficult to increase homelessness on purpose, and even more difficult to do such a way as to make a personal difference). This is a second mechanism (ethical reflection).
But conflicts of interest are extremely important to keep an eye on. On everyday discussions, political and social cases. (see: scout mindset)
As for why the problems haven’t been solved, I think it could be that it’s just not that simple. It’s like asking a farmer “If fertilizers worked well, why do you need to keep fertilizing the soil after all those years?”. Some problems may demand constant, permanent attention. Don’t volunteer trying to solve homelessness, instead volunteer trying to make the life of homeless people better. Hopefully that one day lowers or eliminates homelessness as well, but we shouldn’t condition help on that.
I use homelessness as an example, but I believe the logic generalizes. You’re right that in many cases, the incentives facing an institution aren’t powerful enough to matter, or the people involved could/would just go do other things.
But there are also a lot of cases (see: almost all nonprofits) where people’s jobs depend on the existence and salience of the problem, in which case I think the incentives do start to matter.
I think the claim here could be summarized as: charities may have a vested interest in the problem they’re trying to solve (conflict on interest). However, it’s good to observe this isn’t always the case.
For example, I know volunteers that help the homeless. Everyone in the org is a volunteer, except the cook. If homelessness disappeared tomorrow, they could just take a rest day or go to the park etc.. This is a first prevention mechanism (minimizing vested interests).
Sometimes though you may need employees so that your organization is effective. In this case, they kind of need to pay a cook. It’s hard work, specialized work, workers are usually not high income and need the money. Maybe it would be ideal to find a volunteer cook, alas. In that case, there is still ethics. If the organization and people are effectively ethical, then they should not respond to the incentive by increasing homelessness (in any case… I think it’s fairly difficult to increase homelessness on purpose, and even more difficult to do such a way as to make a personal difference). This is a second mechanism (ethical reflection).
But conflicts of interest are extremely important to keep an eye on. On everyday discussions, political and social cases. (see: scout mindset)
As for why the problems haven’t been solved, I think it could be that it’s just not that simple. It’s like asking a farmer “If fertilizers worked well, why do you need to keep fertilizing the soil after all those years?”. Some problems may demand constant, permanent attention. Don’t volunteer trying to solve homelessness, instead volunteer trying to make the life of homeless people better. Hopefully that one day lowers or eliminates homelessness as well, but we shouldn’t condition help on that.
I use homelessness as an example, but I believe the logic generalizes. You’re right that in many cases, the incentives facing an institution aren’t powerful enough to matter, or the people involved could/would just go do other things.
But there are also a lot of cases (see: almost all nonprofits) where people’s jobs depend on the existence and salience of the problem, in which case I think the incentives do start to matter.