I’ve always thought the same as you, Ian. Great point about foundations, BTW. Very few people are willing to only give to the highest EV charity across all causes and countries, therefore they might as well give as effectively as possible within whatever criteria they have (ie. domestic, homeless). The only argument to the contrary is that there is a counterfactual if the all-or-nothing purist form of EA is broken and people donate to top domain-specific charities that would have given to the best cause neutral charity. I doubt there is much of a counterfactual because the EA community can still promote cause neutral charities while passively recommending domain-specific charities on the internet. It can even be a baby step on the way to practicing a more strict EA – people who wouldn’t consider neutrality get used to the idea of effectiveness within their favourite domain. After having accepted the effectiveness doctrine, they start to open up to cause neutrality, increasing donation size, etc.
While it is good to have top domain-specific charities and interventions suggestions available for those who seek them, there remains 2 questions in my mind: 1) whether they should be branded as “effective altruism” even if they are in a low-potential cause, and 2) how much EA outreach and research should focus on them.
Ideally, those within the domain would find and promote the top charities in the domain themselves so there is no counterfactual from the EA community doing it. I wouldn’t want the limited resources within EA going to low-medium potential domain-specific research and promotion, however, perhaps EA leaders could incite those within the domain to do it themselves (particularly foundations, as you mentioned). That seems like it could be quite high impact. Another point is that perhaps domain-specific discussion will bring in new people to EA that otherwise aren’t interested. These new people could then promote effectiveness within their preferred domains. I think this is very plausible.
Regarding the responses about it being more impactful to persuade someone to give slightly more to a high impact cause neutral charity than significantly more to a domain-specific one, I think that depends on the situation. For a person in Europe, for instance, I would think that it would be more impactful to put effort into persuading them to give to a top overall charity than the best charity their favourite personal cause. However, for people in poor countries, like India, I think outreach would have the greatest impact by persuading them to give to the most effective Indian charities. I find that people from poor countries are primarily concerned about the poverty and problems in their home country.
I’ve always thought the same as you, Ian. Great point about foundations, BTW. Very few people are willing to only give to the highest EV charity across all causes and countries, therefore they might as well give as effectively as possible within whatever criteria they have (ie. domestic, homeless). The only argument to the contrary is that there is a counterfactual if the all-or-nothing purist form of EA is broken and people donate to top domain-specific charities that would have given to the best cause neutral charity. I doubt there is much of a counterfactual because the EA community can still promote cause neutral charities while passively recommending domain-specific charities on the internet. It can even be a baby step on the way to practicing a more strict EA – people who wouldn’t consider neutrality get used to the idea of effectiveness within their favourite domain. After having accepted the effectiveness doctrine, they start to open up to cause neutrality, increasing donation size, etc.
While it is good to have top domain-specific charities and interventions suggestions available for those who seek them, there remains 2 questions in my mind: 1) whether they should be branded as “effective altruism” even if they are in a low-potential cause, and 2) how much EA outreach and research should focus on them.
Ideally, those within the domain would find and promote the top charities in the domain themselves so there is no counterfactual from the EA community doing it. I wouldn’t want the limited resources within EA going to low-medium potential domain-specific research and promotion, however, perhaps EA leaders could incite those within the domain to do it themselves (particularly foundations, as you mentioned). That seems like it could be quite high impact. Another point is that perhaps domain-specific discussion will bring in new people to EA that otherwise aren’t interested. These new people could then promote effectiveness within their preferred domains. I think this is very plausible.
Regarding the responses about it being more impactful to persuade someone to give slightly more to a high impact cause neutral charity than significantly more to a domain-specific one, I think that depends on the situation. For a person in Europe, for instance, I would think that it would be more impactful to put effort into persuading them to give to a top overall charity than the best charity their favourite personal cause. However, for people in poor countries, like India, I think outreach would have the greatest impact by persuading them to give to the most effective Indian charities. I find that people from poor countries are primarily concerned about the poverty and problems in their home country.