rationally, if I’m spending money and have the option of seeing benefits myself, isn’t it more rational for me to spend the money in that way, because then I can actually appreciate the benefits of my personal generosity?
It depends on what you’re optimizing for—whether you value helping people, or seeing people helped (or if you value both, which one you’re focusing on with the donation in question). Being rational determines how you go about getting the things you value, not what your values are.
That said, your other arguments seem to be pointing at value-added beyond helping the one person? It does make sense to take that into account. I’m not confident of this, but I suspect that it’s not enough to make giving locally be the better option, because there is such a big difference in the amount of money required to make someone self-sufficient in the richest vs. the poorest countries.
Someone who can’t even make ends meet is not going to be of the same generosity as someone who is making $60k/year.
As a percentage of income, poorer people tend to be more generous. (Unfortunately, I can’t remember where I read this, and the details of what was counted as generous (giving to friends and acquaintances, or only donations). I think the study only included people in the US.)
It depends on what you’re optimizing for—whether you value helping people, or seeing people helped (or if you value both, which one you’re focusing on with the donation in question). Being rational determines how you go about getting the things you value, not what your values are.
That said, your other arguments seem to be pointing at value-added beyond helping the one person? It does make sense to take that into account. I’m not confident of this, but I suspect that it’s not enough to make giving locally be the better option, because there is such a big difference in the amount of money required to make someone self-sufficient in the richest vs. the poorest countries.
As a percentage of income, poorer people tend to be more generous. (Unfortunately, I can’t remember where I read this, and the details of what was counted as generous (giving to friends and acquaintances, or only donations). I think the study only included people in the US.)