“That’s the problem: people have a moral issue with the idea that it could be acceptable to harm some to donate to others.”
Oh, I see. You think I’m addressing this argument to someone coming from a non-consequentialist framework who has inherent issues with dealing small damage to A through your work in order to deliver large benefits to B through your donations. If that were the case I agree this would be an unsound or at least barely-relevant response.
But that’s not the case. I’m addressing this to people who just have a feeling that the damage you do is greater than the benefits, i.e. they don’t have a problem with the framework, they are just suspicious of the seemingly fully general nature of the earning-to-give argument. E.g. the OP in the example I gave explicitly refers to doing a ‘calculation’ for the most good. If the OP had been about the moral un-virtuousness of EtG instead, then for sure I should respond differently.
Apart from that misunderstanding I don’t have any substantive disagreement with your points.
“That’s the problem: people have a moral issue with the idea that it could be acceptable to harm some to donate to others.”
Oh, I see. You think I’m addressing this argument to someone coming from a non-consequentialist framework who has inherent issues with dealing small damage to A through your work in order to deliver large benefits to B through your donations. If that were the case I agree this would be an unsound or at least barely-relevant response.
But that’s not the case. I’m addressing this to people who just have a feeling that the damage you do is greater than the benefits, i.e. they don’t have a problem with the framework, they are just suspicious of the seemingly fully general nature of the earning-to-give argument. E.g. the OP in the example I gave explicitly refers to doing a ‘calculation’ for the most good. If the OP had been about the moral un-virtuousness of EtG instead, then for sure I should respond differently.
Apart from that misunderstanding I don’t have any substantive disagreement with your points.