To forestall an objection: I think investing with a goal of improving the world as opposed to maximizing income, is basically the same as giving, so that comes into the category of how to spend, not how much money to allocate for it. If you were investing rather than giving, and had income from it, you’d simply allocate it back into the category.
It’s not a strawman, I linked to an actual website. No, those people don’t call themselves Effective Altruists, but they are engaged in altruism and are trying to be effective. EA is an outcome, not a process, and the EA movement has no patent on it. Yes, it’s a weakman, in that I deliberately chose an obviously ineffective charity. But my opinion of the rest of the EA movement is not much higher. The comparison is neither bed nets nor deworming—according to GiveWell’s top ranked charity, it’s sending money unmonitored, and hoping against 60 years of experience that this actually improves things rather than just being a leaky bucket.
it’s sending money unmonitored, and hoping against 60 years of experience that this actually improves things rather than just being a leaky bucket.
There not much experience with sending money directly. Most of aid spending traditional went to big organisations and not to individual people in form of money.
In that case your example of bike rides is pretty bad. It’s a strawman. The comparison is bed nets or deworming.
This thread is interesting, but off-topic. There is lots of useful discussion on the most effective ways to give, but that wasn’t my question.
To forestall an objection: I think investing with a goal of improving the world as opposed to maximizing income, is basically the same as giving, so that comes into the category of how to spend, not how much money to allocate for it. If you were investing rather than giving, and had income from it, you’d simply allocate it back into the category.
It’s not a strawman, I linked to an actual website. No, those people don’t call themselves Effective Altruists, but they are engaged in altruism and are trying to be effective. EA is an outcome, not a process, and the EA movement has no patent on it. Yes, it’s a weakman, in that I deliberately chose an obviously ineffective charity. But my opinion of the rest of the EA movement is not much higher. The comparison is neither bed nets nor deworming—according to GiveWell’s top ranked charity, it’s sending money unmonitored, and hoping against 60 years of experience that this actually improves things rather than just being a leaky bucket.
There not much experience with sending money directly. Most of aid spending traditional went to big organisations and not to individual people in form of money.