If you’re a “rationalist”, but not rich and not on your way to being rich, you’re probably just deluding yourself.
I assumed that with ‘rich’ you mean world top 100 millionaire levels (Correct me if I’m wrong here). You are right that I don’t care enough about $ and status to reach those levels but I wouldn’t say I am poor enough to make absolutely no difference at all.
My minimalistic lifestyle coupled with a average income allows me to save a lot of money. Probably more then my older colleagues who probably earn more then me. And I’m sure that I have more money in the bank that most of the people in my age bracket. (Had anyway. I spend most of it to buy land for my house).
In the future, I’m planning to donate a portion of my income but I’m waiting until my expenses have stabilized and don’t expect any major financial costs.
EDIT : My apologies, just reread your top post and realized I overlooked
Vote this comment down if your net worth is >= $100k, vote up otherwise
I’m assuming that $100K is your limit for being rich and as
I just have a bit more it makes my original comment invalid.
However, it does proof that not caring much about $ and status is not an insurmountable barrier to acquiring a lot of money. By reversing it (i.e. instead of working harder/smarter and earn more, just spend less) you can still get enough to make a difference (but indeed not to the levels like Bill Gates did).
However, it does proof that not caring much about $ and status is not an insurmountable barrier to acquiring a lot of money. By reversing it (i.e. instead of working harder/smarter and earn more, just spend less) you can still get enough to make a difference (but indeed not to the levels like Bill Gates did).
You can make a difference, yes. The relevant equation is:
Difference you make = (Earnings-Spend) x Altruism x 10^(charity rationality)
Since you are considering giving money to some highly efficient charity like SIAI, you will in the future make more of a difference than almost anyone else in the world, if you do so.
However, if you fix charity rationality or you’ve already found the most efficient charity in the world, then it seems to me than Increasing earnings is probably more effective than decreasing spend. You can earn $10^6 .year (I know of a major SIAI donor who has achieved this) , but if your current spend is $10k, you can’t increase -spend by more than a few k.
Right, but the fact remains that most of the influence in this world is going to people with high values of “earnings” and little altruism or charity-rationality, and that if we could get away from this timid, minimalist mentality, we could really change that.
So you have $100k of worth tied up in land for the house, I presume?
I didn’t mean to say that having at least a net worth of $100k was sufficient for being instrumentally rational, more that it is a necessary condition in most cases. If you’re 50 years old, say, then it is far from sufficient. Earnings trajectories tend to be superlinear, so accumulated total earnings grows in a highly superlinear fashion on average, making it relatively hard to set a clear and simple financial boundary.
Your original post said :
I assumed that with ‘rich’ you mean world top 100 millionaire levels (Correct me if I’m wrong here). You are right that I don’t care enough about $ and status to reach those levels but I wouldn’t say I am poor enough to make absolutely no difference at all.
My minimalistic lifestyle coupled with a average income allows me to save a lot of money. Probably more then my older colleagues who probably earn more then me. And I’m sure that I have more money in the bank that most of the people in my age bracket. (Had anyway. I spend most of it to buy land for my house).
In the future, I’m planning to donate a portion of my income but I’m waiting until my expenses have stabilized and don’t expect any major financial costs.
EDIT : My apologies, just reread your top post and realized I overlooked
I’m assuming that $100K is your limit for being rich and as I just have a bit more it makes my original comment invalid.
However, it does proof that not caring much about $ and status is not an insurmountable barrier to acquiring a lot of money. By reversing it (i.e. instead of working harder/smarter and earn more, just spend less) you can still get enough to make a difference (but indeed not to the levels like Bill Gates did).
You can make a difference, yes. The relevant equation is:
Difference you make = (Earnings-Spend) x Altruism x 10^(charity rationality)
Since you are considering giving money to some highly efficient charity like SIAI, you will in the future make more of a difference than almost anyone else in the world, if you do so.
However, if you fix charity rationality or you’ve already found the most efficient charity in the world, then it seems to me than Increasing earnings is probably more effective than decreasing spend. You can earn $10^6 .year (I know of a major SIAI donor who has achieved this) , but if your current spend is $10k, you can’t increase -spend by more than a few k.
You are correct off course. I was merely reacting against your statement that I can make no difference at all.
Right, but the fact remains that most of the influence in this world is going to people with high values of “earnings” and little altruism or charity-rationality, and that if we could get away from this timid, minimalist mentality, we could really change that.
I don’t think the minimalist part is the problem.
So you have $100k of worth tied up in land for the house, I presume?
I didn’t mean to say that having at least a net worth of $100k was sufficient for being instrumentally rational, more that it is a necessary condition in most cases. If you’re 50 years old, say, then it is far from sufficient. Earnings trajectories tend to be superlinear, so accumulated total earnings grows in a highly superlinear fashion on average, making it relatively hard to set a clear and simple financial boundary.