We systematically overspend stupidly on education, healthcare and helping poor people.
Wait, nothing in “The Great Charity Storm” indicates that we overspend on those things. It just says our spending in those areas has increased since 1800, and gives some theories as to why that might be. I would certainly agree that we don’t spend money well in those areas, but it’s not the quantity that’s the problem.
Your statements about what we want to do (care for our in-group, donate to “far” causes to gain status) don’t mean anything about what we should do. I recognize that I have little emotional reason to care about people I’ll never meet who live very different lives from mine, but I believe it’s wrong for them to suffer and die when I could easily prevent that. So I make an effort to think about things that make them feel nearer—their bodies hurt like mine, they protect their children, they make music, they fall in love.
“We’re born to think this way” doesn’t mean you can’t try to change it.
I think it was implied rather strongly by the explanation he offered. I obviously think it plausible if not probable, lest I wouldn’t invoke it.
Around 1800 in England and Russia, the three main do-gooder activities were medicine, school, and alms (= food/shelter for the weak, such as the old or crippled). Today the three spending categories of medicine, school, and alms make up ~40% of US GDP, a far larger fraction than in 1800. Why the vast increase?
My explanation: we long ago evolved strong feelings of respect for these activities, but modern context changes have allowed out-of-equilibrium exploitation of such feelings.
We have evolved strong feeling regarding these activities that are no longer reliable in our modern context. Can you see why this implies we will not only be irrational in our decisions on how much to spend (even in our original context the intuitions where geared towards evolution’s utility function not our own) but also in what way we spend on those things.
but I believe it’s wrong for them to suffer and die when I could easily prevent that.
How familiar are you with the Far vs. Near material on Overcoming Bias? The reason I invoked it was to point out that when thinking in far mode we are more likley to consider such principles very important, yet in near mode much less so. And remember both far and near are shards of desire
How familiar are you with the Far vs. Near material on Overcoming Bias?
Medium-familiar? As a dichotomy, it seems useful if it lets you do things differently because of it. So if you recognize that your far-mode diet isn’t working because your food cravings are near, it may be helpful to make more concrete, near-mode steps. Likewise, if your far-mode ideals say that it’s wrong for people to die of TB when there’s a cheap cure, but you never get around to acting on it or you instead donate to nearer but less efficient causes, doing something to put it in nearer mode might be helpful. As in, “I will look at pictures of people in countries where people die of stupid diseases and remember that they are regular people like me”, or “I will donate to an efficient health charity and then have an ice cream sundae.” (Though his may interfere with the far-mode diet...)
Wait, nothing in “The Great Charity Storm” indicates that we overspend on those things. It just says our spending in those areas has increased since 1800, and gives some theories as to why that might be. I would certainly agree that we don’t spend money well in those areas, but it’s not the quantity that’s the problem.
Your statements about what we want to do (care for our in-group, donate to “far” causes to gain status) don’t mean anything about what we should do. I recognize that I have little emotional reason to care about people I’ll never meet who live very different lives from mine, but I believe it’s wrong for them to suffer and die when I could easily prevent that. So I make an effort to think about things that make them feel nearer—their bodies hurt like mine, they protect their children, they make music, they fall in love.
“We’re born to think this way” doesn’t mean you can’t try to change it.
I think it was implied rather strongly by the explanation he offered. I obviously think it plausible if not probable, lest I wouldn’t invoke it.
We have evolved strong feeling regarding these activities that are no longer reliable in our modern context. Can you see why this implies we will not only be irrational in our decisions on how much to spend (even in our original context the intuitions where geared towards evolution’s utility function not our own) but also in what way we spend on those things.
How familiar are you with the Far vs. Near material on Overcoming Bias? The reason I invoked it was to point out that when thinking in far mode we are more likley to consider such principles very important, yet in near mode much less so. And remember both far and near are shards of desire
Medium-familiar? As a dichotomy, it seems useful if it lets you do things differently because of it. So if you recognize that your far-mode diet isn’t working because your food cravings are near, it may be helpful to make more concrete, near-mode steps. Likewise, if your far-mode ideals say that it’s wrong for people to die of TB when there’s a cheap cure, but you never get around to acting on it or you instead donate to nearer but less efficient causes, doing something to put it in nearer mode might be helpful. As in, “I will look at pictures of people in countries where people die of stupid diseases and remember that they are regular people like me”, or “I will donate to an efficient health charity and then have an ice cream sundae.” (Though his may interfere with the far-mode diet...)