But if no-one did things like this, the registry would be empty of donors, and a world where everyone pumped their free time into money for malaria and neglected all other worthy causes seems distasteful to me.
That’s unfortunately like the argument that one shouldn’t become anything but a farmer, since without farmers we would have no food. One needs to think at the margin. First-world healthcare spending is many, many, times effective international public health expenditures. The major malaria, HIV, etc interventions would be overflowing before this got to be a big dent. If “everyone thought one way” and implemented the rule “first do the things that do the most good by your lights, until diminishing returns drive the good per dollar below the next alternative” you would get a more efficient charitable market, where one could do similar amounts of good in diverse fields, just as stock and bond markets are somewhat efficient.
ETA: Note that AMF is a placeholder here, I don’t actually think that’s the best way to help the current generation, let alone future generations.
I think that that might make more sense then the way charitable giving tends to happen now, but it seems like it would be an unstable system. As money flooded in to the most efficient charity, it would eventually find itself with more money than it could effectively use (Doctors Without Borders apparently had this problem with Haiti with regards to ‘earmarked’ money for disaster relief of a specific area), and its efficiency would go down. All of the donors would then direct their money to the next charity on the list until the same thing happens, and then move down again. I see two problems with this. First, how do you know when to move down the list, and second, how do you know when to move back up the list, i.e. when the first charity needs donations again.
Note that GiveWell carefully tracks room for more funding in its charities. They channeled funding to VillageReach until it had a few years worth of funding at the margin, and then moved on in their recommendation. But they keep track, and when VillageReach again shows that it can use money effectively it will be recommended easily. The problem with Haiti was that there were a lot of donors giving because of the TV images and charity fundraising even though it was clear that there was a surfeit of funding.
If those donors had been more sensible they could have used the recommendations of a service like GiveWell to identify the top organizations. Likewise for scientific research one can back a lab or fund that can allocate resources among many different experiments (or unrestricted grants to Doctors Without Borders which it can allocate to locations of greatest need). This doesn’t seem to be too much of a problem in practice, as well as theory.
Wow, GiveWell seems to be really good at what it does. The Haiti thing was a problem, but it DID spawn a lot of giving that otherwise wouldn’t happen. Perhaps the organizations who advertise during emergencies shouldn’t accept earmarked donations and instead take advantage of the surge of sympathy for disaster victims to acquire funding for the entire program. Or are there laws preventing that?
A few things I would see as better in expectation than AMF in terms of current people (with varying degrees of confidence and EV, note that I am not ranking the following in relation to each other in this comment):
GiveWell itself (it directs multiple dollars to its top charities on the dollar invested, as far as I can see, and powers the growth of an effective philanthropy movement with broader implications).
Some research in the model of Poverty Action Lab.
A portfolio of somewhat outre endeavours like Paul Romer’s Charter Cities.
Political lobbying for AMF-style interventions (Gates cites his lobbying expenditures as among their very best), carefully optimized as expected-value charity rather than tribalism using GiveWell-style empiricism, with the collective action problems of politics offsetting the reduced efficiency and corruption of the government route
In my view, the risk of catastrophe from intelligent machines is large enough and neglected enough to beat AMF (Averting a 0.1% risk of killing everyone would be worth $14 billion at the $2,000/life AMF exchange rate; plus, conditional on intelligent machines being feasible this century the expected standard of living for current people goes up, meriting extra attention depending on how much better life can get than the current standard); this is much less of a slam dunk than if we consider future generations, but still better than AMF when I use my best estimates
Nukes and biotech also pose catastrophic risks, but also have much larger spending on countermeasures today (tens of billions annually), although smarter countermeasures could help, so probably not anything I can point to now, although I expect such options exist
Putting money in a Donor-Advised Fund to await the discovery of more effective charities, or special time-sensitive circumstances demanding funds especially strongly
GiveWell itself (it directs multiple dollars to its top charities on the dollar invested, as far as I can see, and powers the growth of an effective philanthropy movement with broader implications).
There’s an issue of room for more funding.
Some research in the model of Poverty Action Lab.
What information do we have from Poverty Action Lab that we wouldn’t have otherwise? (This is not intended as a rhetorical question; I don’t know much about what Poverty Action Lab has done).
A portfolio of somewhat outre endeavours like Paul Romer’s Charter Cities.
Even in the face of the possibility of such endeavors systematically doing more harm than good due to culture clash?
Political lobbying for AMF-style interventions (Gates cites his lobbying expenditures as among their very best), carefully optimized as expected-value charity rather than tribalism using GiveWell-style empiricism, with the collective action problems of politics offsetting the reduced efficiency and corruption of the government route
Here too maybe there’s an issue of room for more funding: if there’s room for more funding then why does the Gates Foundation spend money on many other things?
Putting money in a Donor-Advised Fund to await the discovery of more effective charities, or special time-sensitive circumstances demanding funds especially strongly
What would the criterion for using the money be? (If one doesn’t have such a criterion then one forever holds off on a better opportunity and this has zero expected value.)
That’s unfortunately like the argument that one shouldn’t become anything but a farmer, since without farmers we would have no food. One needs to think at the margin. First-world healthcare spending is many, many, times effective international public health expenditures. The major malaria, HIV, etc interventions would be overflowing before this got to be a big dent. If “everyone thought one way” and implemented the rule “first do the things that do the most good by your lights, until diminishing returns drive the good per dollar below the next alternative” you would get a more efficient charitable market, where one could do similar amounts of good in diverse fields, just as stock and bond markets are somewhat efficient.
ETA: Note that AMF is a placeholder here, I don’t actually think that’s the best way to help the current generation, let alone future generations.
I think that that might make more sense then the way charitable giving tends to happen now, but it seems like it would be an unstable system. As money flooded in to the most efficient charity, it would eventually find itself with more money than it could effectively use (Doctors Without Borders apparently had this problem with Haiti with regards to ‘earmarked’ money for disaster relief of a specific area), and its efficiency would go down. All of the donors would then direct their money to the next charity on the list until the same thing happens, and then move down again. I see two problems with this. First, how do you know when to move down the list, and second, how do you know when to move back up the list, i.e. when the first charity needs donations again.
Note that GiveWell carefully tracks room for more funding in its charities. They channeled funding to VillageReach until it had a few years worth of funding at the margin, and then moved on in their recommendation. But they keep track, and when VillageReach again shows that it can use money effectively it will be recommended easily. The problem with Haiti was that there were a lot of donors giving because of the TV images and charity fundraising even though it was clear that there was a surfeit of funding.
If those donors had been more sensible they could have used the recommendations of a service like GiveWell to identify the top organizations. Likewise for scientific research one can back a lab or fund that can allocate resources among many different experiments (or unrestricted grants to Doctors Without Borders which it can allocate to locations of greatest need). This doesn’t seem to be too much of a problem in practice, as well as theory.
Wow, GiveWell seems to be really good at what it does. The Haiti thing was a problem, but it DID spawn a lot of giving that otherwise wouldn’t happen. Perhaps the organizations who advertise during emergencies shouldn’t accept earmarked donations and instead take advantage of the surge of sympathy for disaster victims to acquire funding for the entire program. Or are there laws preventing that?
Some people want to give you donations earmarked for Haiti. You tell them you only accept unrestricted funding. Many fewer donate.
Great point.
I can see how things like SIAI or FHI might be better for future generations, but what do you think is better than AMF for current generations?
A few things I would see as better in expectation than AMF in terms of current people (with varying degrees of confidence and EV, note that I am not ranking the following in relation to each other in this comment):
GiveWell itself (it directs multiple dollars to its top charities on the dollar invested, as far as I can see, and powers the growth of an effective philanthropy movement with broader implications).
Some research in the model of Poverty Action Lab.
A portfolio of somewhat outre endeavours like Paul Romer’s Charter Cities.
Political lobbying for AMF-style interventions (Gates cites his lobbying expenditures as among their very best), carefully optimized as expected-value charity rather than tribalism using GiveWell-style empiricism, with the collective action problems of politics offsetting the reduced efficiency and corruption of the government route
In my view, the risk of catastrophe from intelligent machines is large enough and neglected enough to beat AMF (Averting a 0.1% risk of killing everyone would be worth $14 billion at the $2,000/life AMF exchange rate; plus, conditional on intelligent machines being feasible this century the expected standard of living for current people goes up, meriting extra attention depending on how much better life can get than the current standard); this is much less of a slam dunk than if we consider future generations, but still better than AMF when I use my best estimates
Nukes and biotech also pose catastrophic risks, but also have much larger spending on countermeasures today (tens of billions annually), although smarter countermeasures could help, so probably not anything I can point to now, although I expect such options exist
Putting money in a Donor-Advised Fund to await the discovery of more effective charities, or special time-sensitive circumstances demanding funds especially strongly
There’s an issue of room for more funding.
What information do we have from Poverty Action Lab that we wouldn’t have otherwise? (This is not intended as a rhetorical question; I don’t know much about what Poverty Action Lab has done).
Even in the face of the possibility of such endeavors systematically doing more harm than good due to culture clash?
Here too maybe there’s an issue of room for more funding: if there’s room for more funding then why does the Gates Foundation spend money on many other things?
What would the criterion for using the money be? (If one doesn’t have such a criterion then one forever holds off on a better opportunity and this has zero expected value.)