Have you considered accounting for the meat eater problem? Immigration to countries where SWB is higher will also lead to higher consumption of animals, which counters the benefits of the increase in human happiness.
To illustrate, for the 35.07 G poultry birds and 7.84 G humans in 2020, and Rethink Priorities’ median moral weight of 0.332 for chickens, one can conclude the total moral weight of chickens is 1.49 (= 35.07*0.332/7.84) times that of humans. I also guess the intensity of the experiences of chickens relative to their moral weight is higher than for humans, so the factor of 1.49 may well be an underestimate.
In any case, considering the impact on wild arthropods is pretty uncertain (quick illustration here), and may well be more important than the impact on chickens (see here), I would say the impact of immigration in the nearterm is pretty uncertain too.
Hi Joel and Samuel,
Have you considered accounting for the meat eater problem? Immigration to countries where SWB is higher will also lead to higher consumption of animals, which counters the benefits of the increase in human happiness.
To illustrate, for the 35.07 G poultry birds and 7.84 G humans in 2020, and Rethink Priorities’ median moral weight of 0.332 for chickens, one can conclude the total moral weight of chickens is 1.49 (= 35.07*0.332/7.84) times that of humans. I also guess the intensity of the experiences of chickens relative to their moral weight is higher than for humans, so the factor of 1.49 may well be an underestimate.
In any case, considering the impact on wild arthropods is pretty uncertain (quick illustration here), and may well be more important than the impact on chickens (see here), I would say the impact of immigration in the nearterm is pretty uncertain too.