“Let’s help everyone equally, or in proportion to their needs or something” is easier to agree on than “let’s devote the entire GDP of Russia to my personal enjoyment, and maybe my friends and allies in proportion to their loyalty.” With the former, people quibble over definitions and in-groups and details of implementation; the latter, even Putin dares not propose openly.
I’m not claiming that propensity to charity or altruism causes, or even particularly correlates with, economic development. I’m just saying that economic development is good, and that it’s marginally better for the world economy when some excess food goes to a human who’ll eat it, rather than sitting in some warehouse until it rots, even (perhaps especially) if the human in question can’t afford to buy food at the going market rate. When rational people see something being squandered, they prefer to throw that resource into charity, where it will do some good, rather than preserve the wasteful status quo.
Or you are so unfocused you solve none of them?
You start with the especially vast, horrific problems which can be sorted out cheaply, like scurvy and polio and malaria, then proceed to more complicated, less severe stuff as returns begin to diminish. That’s the whole idea of evaluating medical interventions in terms of dollars-per-QALY, isn’t it?
No need to propose it openly and Putin does it openly enough—and still gets 80%+ approval ratings :-/
I’m not claiming that propensity to charity or altruism causes, or even particularly correlates with, economic development.
So you are not insisting on the “get to live in that richer system and enjoy the benefits” claim?
it’s marginally better for the world economy when some excess food goes to a human who’ll eat it, rather than sitting in some warehouse until it rots,
As a general claim, that’s complicated. The main problems go by the name of “moral hazard” and “instilling dependency” and they are not just theoretical. I don’t have links at hand, but I believe it was shown that, for example, massive shipments of used clothing from the West into Africa (“rather than throwing it into trash give it to someone who can use it”) basically decimated the local clothing industry.
I am not saying “never give anything to anyone”, I’m saying that the situation is much more complicated than you make it look like and it’s not hard to do more harm than good by giving out free goods.
Your last point strikes me as a truism and distraction. The question is what motivates overall QALY maximization. Parent’s point was that resources should be used where they can most effectively increase QALY, and that possibly comes down to both intrinsic motivation (I don’t need it, they need it, it just fits nicely) and extrinsic motivation (direct reward through hard-wired empathy and social reward through philanthropy meme).
“Let’s help everyone equally, or in proportion to their needs or something” is easier to agree on than “let’s devote the entire GDP of Russia to my personal enjoyment, and maybe my friends and allies in proportion to their loyalty.” With the former, people quibble over definitions and in-groups and details of implementation; the latter, even Putin dares not propose openly.
I’m not claiming that propensity to charity or altruism causes, or even particularly correlates with, economic development. I’m just saying that economic development is good, and that it’s marginally better for the world economy when some excess food goes to a human who’ll eat it, rather than sitting in some warehouse until it rots, even (perhaps especially) if the human in question can’t afford to buy food at the going market rate. When rational people see something being squandered, they prefer to throw that resource into charity, where it will do some good, rather than preserve the wasteful status quo.
You start with the especially vast, horrific problems which can be sorted out cheaply, like scurvy and polio and malaria, then proceed to more complicated, less severe stuff as returns begin to diminish. That’s the whole idea of evaluating medical interventions in terms of dollars-per-QALY, isn’t it?
No need to propose it openly and Putin does it openly enough—and still gets 80%+ approval ratings :-/
So you are not insisting on the “get to live in that richer system and enjoy the benefits” claim?
As a general claim, that’s complicated. The main problems go by the name of “moral hazard” and “instilling dependency” and they are not just theoretical. I don’t have links at hand, but I believe it was shown that, for example, massive shipments of used clothing from the West into Africa (“rather than throwing it into trash give it to someone who can use it”) basically decimated the local clothing industry.
I am not saying “never give anything to anyone”, I’m saying that the situation is much more complicated than you make it look like and it’s not hard to do more harm than good by giving out free goods.
Your last point strikes me as a truism and distraction. The question is what motivates overall QALY maximization. Parent’s point was that resources should be used where they can most effectively increase QALY, and that possibly comes down to both intrinsic motivation (I don’t need it, they need it, it just fits nicely) and extrinsic motivation (direct reward through hard-wired empathy and social reward through philanthropy meme).