This post raises some important concerns, which I and probably most members of 80,000 Hours share. For instance, how plausible is it to take a high-earning career we don’t enjoy in order to donate more money to charity. But I don’t think 80k’s ‘party line’ – or the views of its members—are accurately represented by these six claims. Essentially, we don’t believe that professional philanthropy is commonly the best thing we can do, or so we typically (generally? commonly?) should do it.
What we do claim is that many people (not everyone) could do more good through professional philanthropy than by working directly in the charity sector or other ’commonsensical ethical careers. This does not imply that it’s typically best. We more believe something along the lines of (6). For similar reasons we don’t claim (2) or (3) either.
80k also does not claim (4). We’ve made no claims about which careers give the highest expected earnings. In fact this is an ongoing research program at 80k. On the 80k blog Carl has already written a fair amount on ‘non-traditional’ options like entrepreneurship e.g. (http://80000hours.org/blog/23-entrepreneurship-a-game-of-poker-not-roulette). I think the common focus on banking is because, first, banking is at least fairly high earning (easily £6m over a career), and two, it’s morally controversial. So, if the argument flies for banking, it works even better for less morally controversial careers.
Neither does 80k claim (5), but Grognor and Unnamed have covered that better than I could.
Is there any discussion of lines of work which tend to make people’s lives better, while not formally being philanthropic? For example, there might be money to be made in making sanitation in hospitals easier and cheaper.
Certainly lots of people are trying for obvious ways to help lots of people—e.g. a cure for cancer. But it’s a good point that there may be unsexy areas, like sanitation, with lower-hanging fruit.
(Further disclaimer: I’m not a spokesperson for 80 000 hours, so this isn’t the party line—take what you find on the website over me if we disagree).
Not that I’m aware of, although given a lot of 80ks message is about how ‘formally’ or ‘commonly considered’ philanthropy is not as good as more counter-intuitive means, I (and I’d guess most other folks at 80k) would be pretty sympathetic to it. I guess the closest analogue on the site would be discussion of ‘high impact PAs’. (http://80000hours.org/blog/54-the-high-impact-pa-how-anyone-can-bring-about-ground-breaking-research)
Disclaimer: I’m an 80,000 Hours member
This post raises some important concerns, which I and probably most members of 80,000 Hours share. For instance, how plausible is it to take a high-earning career we don’t enjoy in order to donate more money to charity. But I don’t think 80k’s ‘party line’ – or the views of its members—are accurately represented by these six claims. Essentially, we don’t believe that professional philanthropy is commonly the best thing we can do, or so we typically (generally? commonly?) should do it.
What we do claim is that many people (not everyone) could do more good through professional philanthropy than by working directly in the charity sector or other ’commonsensical ethical careers. This does not imply that it’s typically best. We more believe something along the lines of (6). For similar reasons we don’t claim (2) or (3) either.
80k also does not claim (4). We’ve made no claims about which careers give the highest expected earnings. In fact this is an ongoing research program at 80k. On the 80k blog Carl has already written a fair amount on ‘non-traditional’ options like entrepreneurship e.g. (http://80000hours.org/blog/23-entrepreneurship-a-game-of-poker-not-roulette). I think the common focus on banking is because, first, banking is at least fairly high earning (easily £6m over a career), and two, it’s morally controversial. So, if the argument flies for banking, it works even better for less morally controversial careers.
Neither does 80k claim (5), but Grognor and Unnamed have covered that better than I could.
Is there any discussion of lines of work which tend to make people’s lives better, while not formally being philanthropic? For example, there might be money to be made in making sanitation in hospitals easier and cheaper.
Certainly lots of people are trying for obvious ways to help lots of people—e.g. a cure for cancer. But it’s a good point that there may be unsexy areas, like sanitation, with lower-hanging fruit.
(Further disclaimer: I’m not a spokesperson for 80 000 hours, so this isn’t the party line—take what you find on the website over me if we disagree).
Not that I’m aware of, although given a lot of 80ks message is about how ‘formally’ or ‘commonly considered’ philanthropy is not as good as more counter-intuitive means, I (and I’d guess most other folks at 80k) would be pretty sympathetic to it. I guess the closest analogue on the site would be discussion of ‘high impact PAs’. (http://80000hours.org/blog/54-the-high-impact-pa-how-anyone-can-bring-about-ground-breaking-research)