The view seems to be fairly common among EA circles that global development is intractable, or very low in tractability. The best that can be done is global health work (although the idea that this actually leads to faster growth somewhere down the line is IMO very very poorly evidenced) or mass immigration to the West.
Personally, I think this view is mostly wrong although bits of it are clearly true. Obviously there’s nothing that EA can realistically do for development in South Africa or Argentina, countries with very different histories but completely screwed-up utterly hopeless politics. That said, most developing countries have institutions that are quite a bit more functional than this and there’s a lot more to work with (even in somewhere like Nigeria, vide https://kenopalo.substack.com/p/on-why-i-remain-bullish-on-nigeria). That sort of work ultimately takes long-term cadre building in developing countries themselves since trying to import governance wholesale rarely works outside of (occasionally) authoritarian regimes, but the potential payoffs are of course absolutely enormous.
The view seems to be fairly common among EA circles that global development is intractable, or very low in tractability. The best that can be done is global health work (although the idea that this actually leads to faster growth somewhere down the line is IMO very very poorly evidenced) or mass immigration to the West.
Personally, I think this view is mostly wrong although bits of it are clearly true. Obviously there’s nothing that EA can realistically do for development in South Africa or Argentina, countries with very different histories but completely screwed-up utterly hopeless politics. That said, most developing countries have institutions that are quite a bit more functional than this and there’s a lot more to work with (even in somewhere like Nigeria, vide https://kenopalo.substack.com/p/on-why-i-remain-bullish-on-nigeria). That sort of work ultimately takes long-term cadre building in developing countries themselves since trying to import governance wholesale rarely works outside of (occasionally) authoritarian regimes, but the potential payoffs are of course absolutely enormous.