However, I don’t think this shows it’s plausible that earning to give is likely to be the path towards doing the most good.
Do you (meaning, I guess, anyone reading this) have a good idea of just how altruistic typical people considering “earning to give” are? I mean: a perfect altruist will indeed be looking simply for “the path towards doing the most good”, but someone who merely cares much more than most about the welfare of the world’s poorest people (or the dangers of runaway artificial intelligence, or eradicating disease, or ending aging, or whatever) will presumably attach some weight to their own earnings.
It seems like it could easily be true that (1) there are other things a smart hard-working person could do that do more good overall than ETG, but (2) ETG handily beats them in terms of the actual preferences of most people contemplating ETG.
(Though there might be benefits in not acknowledging those actual preferences too openly: e.g., doing so might make people feel less good about ETG and therefore less inclined to do it, or it might encourage them to put a higher weight on their own personal gain and therefore give less.)
Do you (meaning, I guess, anyone reading this) have a good idea of just how altruistic typical people considering “earning to give” are? I mean: a perfect altruist will indeed be looking simply for “the path towards doing the most good”, but someone who merely cares much more than most about the welfare of the world’s poorest people (or the dangers of runaway artificial intelligence, or eradicating disease, or ending aging, or whatever) will presumably attach some weight to their own earnings.
It seems like it could easily be true that (1) there are other things a smart hard-working person could do that do more good overall than ETG, but (2) ETG handily beats them in terms of the actual preferences of most people contemplating ETG.
(Though there might be benefits in not acknowledging those actual preferences too openly: e.g., doing so might make people feel less good about ETG and therefore less inclined to do it, or it might encourage them to put a higher weight on their own personal gain and therefore give less.)