EA doesn’t have much of a political lens. If you are person who believes the problems EA is trying to solve are inherently political problems, then the technocratic/economist lens of EA is probably just not very moving to you. I think that is more to the heart of the question.
For example: political movements can and do radically change the world (for better and worse), which isn’t captured in metrics like neglectedness and tractability. Participation in a isn’t easily measurable. Specific examples might be:
Climate change: important to but not prioritised by EA as seen as a saturated market. How do you measure the cost-benefit of something like attending a climate protest march?
Government: 80k recommends government careers as potential hugely impactful but as far as I’m aware doesn’t talk about political careers the same way, although politics sets government policy and budget. When EA does talk about political careers it is more again the low-hanging fruit view (eg run for local office) rather than “participate in a movement and help it maybe reach critical mass” view.
Wealth redistribution: prioritise charitable giving with the Give Directly model as a baseline, but don’t talk about tax policy.
EA doesn’t have much of a political lens. If you are person who believes the problems EA is trying to solve are inherently political problems, then the technocratic/economist lens of EA is probably just not very moving to you. I think that is more to the heart of the question.
For example: political movements can and do radically change the world (for better and worse), which isn’t captured in metrics like neglectedness and tractability. Participation in a isn’t easily measurable. Specific examples might be:
Climate change: important to but not prioritised by EA as seen as a saturated market. How do you measure the cost-benefit of something like attending a climate protest march?
Government: 80k recommends government careers as potential hugely impactful but as far as I’m aware doesn’t talk about political careers the same way, although politics sets government policy and budget. When EA does talk about political careers it is more again the low-hanging fruit view (eg run for local office) rather than “participate in a movement and help it maybe reach critical mass” view.
Wealth redistribution: prioritise charitable giving with the Give Directly model as a baseline, but don’t talk about tax policy.