When I used to give introductory EA talks I got this question now and then, from people who mean well and ask because this is something they are honestly wondering about. I can imagine people downvote because the question gives the impression that you didn‘t spend much time thinking before asking (e.g. what’s meant with capitalist system, what changes seem promising to you). Have you searched for „capitalism“ or „systemic change“ in the forum and didn‘t find any useful discussion that helps specifying your answer? If yes, you could mention that so people know that you invested some of your time already and are really interested in improving your understanding. E.g. this article seems related: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/ktEfsoGfBFGsaiY46/overview-of-capitalism-and-socialism-for-effective-altruism
Thanks for your response. Yes, I did look at the systematic change area, albeit quite quickly. I also read Singer’s response in the live you can save, I thought that his response wasn’t convincing. So I thought I wonder what people think in this forum. Thank you for the Capitalism article, I’ll have a read.
I think a paragraph on why you didn’t find Singer’s response convincing would’ve improved this question considerably, as it would’ve allowed people to see where you are coming from and what kind of concrete answer would be useful for you.
Also this downvoting made me question whether I understand what is the purpose of the forum? Isn’t it for people to discuss issues related to EA? Or is it only to agree on what the EA say? I don’t see how my question gave the impression that I haven’t thought about the question? You the topic of capitalism a bit sensitive here?
People [who seem to be unwilling to think or to do their own homework before asking questions] are time sinks — they take without giving back, and they waste time we could have spent on another question more interesting and another person more worthy of an answer.
We’re (largely) volunteers. We take time out of busy lives to answer questions, and at times we’re overwhelmed with them. So we filter ruthlessly. In particular, we throw away questions from people who appear to [not put in much effort in doing research or asking a useful question] in order to spend our question-answering time more efficiently, on winners.
I think asking “Is capitalism the root of all evil?” without much context gives the strong impression of a less useful question, as it’s very unspecific and in my experience value-laden and requires a tonne of unpacking (the article I linked discusses this a bit).
Thanks again for your response. I didn’t know that only volunteers in EA respond to these questions. I did not ask the question to get a clear answer, I asked it to see what people think (as in a form of discussion). I thought anyone can see these question not only volunteers. So I apologies for wasting anyone’s time.
To clarify, when meerpirat say that people on the EA Forum are volunteers, they don’t (I assume) mean that there is some dedicated team of volunteers whose job it is to answer Forum questions.
Rather, they simply mean that most users of the Forum are not paid to use it.
(I’m not sure if you were in fact confused about this, but I thought your comment above potentially implied that you were, so I wanted to make this clear just in case.)
Please let me know how to delete my question so other volunteers don’t have to respond. And just to clarify my question was’t whether capitalism is the root of all evil, this was just the title. But anyway thank you for your time and directions. I will read around in the EA about this topic and make up my own mind. Thanks again.
When I used to give introductory EA talks I got this question now and then, from people who mean well and ask because this is something they are honestly wondering about. I can imagine people downvote because the question gives the impression that you didn‘t spend much time thinking before asking (e.g. what’s meant with capitalist system, what changes seem promising to you). Have you searched for „capitalism“ or „systemic change“ in the forum and didn‘t find any useful discussion that helps specifying your answer? If yes, you could mention that so people know that you invested some of your time already and are really interested in improving your understanding. E.g. this article seems related: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/ktEfsoGfBFGsaiY46/overview-of-capitalism-and-socialism-for-effective-altruism
Thanks for your response. Yes, I did look at the systematic change area, albeit quite quickly. I also read Singer’s response in the live you can save, I thought that his response wasn’t convincing. So I thought I wonder what people think in this forum. Thank you for the Capitalism article, I’ll have a read.
I think a paragraph on why you didn’t find Singer’s response convincing would’ve improved this question considerably, as it would’ve allowed people to see where you are coming from and what kind of concrete answer would be useful for you.
Also this downvoting made me question whether I understand what is the purpose of the forum? Isn’t it for people to discuss issues related to EA? Or is it only to agree on what the EA say? I don’t see how my question gave the impression that I haven’t thought about the question? You the topic of capitalism a bit sensitive here?
There’s a popular guide on asking good questions to a technical community, which I found useful (though it’s pretty biting): http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
I think asking “Is capitalism the root of all evil?” without much context gives the strong impression of a less useful question, as it’s very unspecific and in my experience value-laden and requires a tonne of unpacking (the article I linked discusses this a bit).
Thanks again for your response. I didn’t know that only volunteers in EA respond to these questions. I did not ask the question to get a clear answer, I asked it to see what people think (as in a form of discussion). I thought anyone can see these question not only volunteers. So I apologies for wasting anyone’s time.
To clarify, when meerpirat say that people on the EA Forum are volunteers, they don’t (I assume) mean that there is some dedicated team of volunteers whose job it is to answer Forum questions.
Rather, they simply mean that most users of the Forum are not paid to use it.
(I’m not sure if you were in fact confused about this, but I thought your comment above potentially implied that you were, so I wanted to make this clear just in case.)
Thank you for this clarification. I certainly thought that there are dedicated volnuteers.
Please let me know how to delete my question so other volunteers don’t have to respond. And just to clarify my question was’t whether capitalism is the root of all evil, this was just the title. But anyway thank you for your time and directions. I will read around in the EA about this topic and make up my own mind. Thanks again.