Yes Yonatan, I think that’s correct. It just surprises me how often people seem to say ‘most of impact comes from my direct work so I shouldn’t donate at all’.
In almost all cases, direct work + donating > direct work only
While that is probably mostly true (afaik), note that (in my opinion) many direct workers aren’t being paid enough (in the current situation, maybe it will change), so I’d hesitate “pushing” them to donate some of what they’re getting
So I guess this hinges on what we mean by “enough”. If your position is “most people in direct work are paid below their potential market value”—yes, absolutely. But I don’t really see that as relevant to “are they paid enough to donate a %.” If we considered those things to be the same, we could end up doing endorsing some strange ideas, e.g. “I’m a consultant at Accenture paid $200k/year but I could be a consultant at McKinsey paid $400k/year, so I shouldn’t have to donate.”
If we consider those questions separately, then “enough” looks different. Clearly most people in direct work are paid enough to survive in a high cost of living city in a high income country; many are paid enough to be comfortable; some are paid enough to be considered rich by any reasonable standard (top few % in their own country, let alone globally).
One bit of signal here is that so many people in direct work do seem to be donating and don’t seem to be making large sacrifices to do that.
It sort of comes back to one of the original EA arguments—what is that extra worth to you versus someone else?
Thanks for clarifying, both.
Yes Yonatan, I think that’s correct. It just surprises me how often people seem to say ‘most of impact comes from my direct work so I shouldn’t donate at all’.
In almost all cases, direct work + donating > direct work only
While that is probably mostly true (afaik), note that (in my opinion) many direct workers aren’t being paid enough (in the current situation, maybe it will change), so I’d hesitate “pushing” them to donate some of what they’re getting
So I guess this hinges on what we mean by “enough”. If your position is “most people in direct work are paid below their potential market value”—yes, absolutely. But I don’t really see that as relevant to “are they paid enough to donate a %.” If we considered those things to be the same, we could end up doing endorsing some strange ideas, e.g. “I’m a consultant at Accenture paid $200k/year but I could be a consultant at McKinsey paid $400k/year, so I shouldn’t have to donate.”
If we consider those questions separately, then “enough” looks different. Clearly most people in direct work are paid enough to survive in a high cost of living city in a high income country; many are paid enough to be comfortable; some are paid enough to be considered rich by any reasonable standard (top few % in their own country, let alone globally).
One bit of signal here is that so many people in direct work do seem to be donating and don’t seem to be making large sacrifices to do that.
It sort of comes back to one of the original EA arguments—what is that extra worth to you versus someone else?