Thanks for this interesting writeup and discussion!
I think EA movement building attracts people with different levels of commitment to EA. Doing direct work, at least given current salaries, might require most people to forgo 50-90% of their market income. This could mean people doing direct work will have a significant different lifestyle from people in their peer groups, particularly if the people doing direct work have children and do not have partners with high incomes.
People who find EA arguments compelling, but who are not willing to make the lifestyle sacrifice required to do direct work will find earning to give more appealing. Work often does not scale (down) well, so splitting one’s time between working for a market wage and doing direct work will tend not to be optimal.
This would change if direct work paid closer to market wages for different skillsets. More EAs could do direct work, and those who are more committed could donate greater shares of their income. But this could affect the culture within organizations (e.g. if colleagues had very different salaries or donated very different amounts), and lower salaries can serve a selection purpose for roles where the level of commitment to EA might affect job performance.
I’m not suggesting this needs to be in the model, but I think if direct work is an option only for highly committed EAs, it will affect the relative scarcity of labor and capital within the movement.
Thanks for this interesting writeup and discussion!
I think EA movement building attracts people with different levels of commitment to EA. Doing direct work, at least given current salaries, might require most people to forgo 50-90% of their market income. This could mean people doing direct work will have a significant different lifestyle from people in their peer groups, particularly if the people doing direct work have children and do not have partners with high incomes.
People who find EA arguments compelling, but who are not willing to make the lifestyle sacrifice required to do direct work will find earning to give more appealing. Work often does not scale (down) well, so splitting one’s time between working for a market wage and doing direct work will tend not to be optimal.
This would change if direct work paid closer to market wages for different skillsets. More EAs could do direct work, and those who are more committed could donate greater shares of their income. But this could affect the culture within organizations (e.g. if colleagues had very different salaries or donated very different amounts), and lower salaries can serve a selection purpose for roles where the level of commitment to EA might affect job performance.
I’m not suggesting this needs to be in the model, but I think if direct work is an option only for highly committed EAs, it will affect the relative scarcity of labor and capital within the movement.