I agree with your basic interpretation, but I think a different conclusion can be drawn. You’re framing the argument as saying “A completely centralised government is bad, so we should use markets to do these things”. Then you explain why markets alone can’t really provide the things people need.
This is an argument on why not to jump from full centralisation to full libertarian decentralisation. But as in economic policy, there’s vast middle ground. One can, as in social democracy, have that centralised guiding organisation but still rely on the power of markets as a tool.
In practice this means, for example, looking for opportunities like AMF where collective organisation allows for much more efficient allocation of goods than would otherwise be possible; but also giving a substantial part of the resources through GiveDirectly for other goods to be allocated more dynamically by the market. Which is someone “we” (i.e. GiveWell) don’t currently do.
I agree with your basic interpretation, but I think a different conclusion can be drawn. You’re framing the argument as saying “A completely centralised government is bad, so we should use markets to do these things”. Then you explain why markets alone can’t really provide the things people need.
This is an argument on why not to jump from full centralisation to full libertarian decentralisation. But as in economic policy, there’s vast middle ground. One can, as in social democracy, have that centralised guiding organisation but still rely on the power of markets as a tool.
In practice this means, for example, looking for opportunities like AMF where collective organisation allows for much more efficient allocation of goods than would otherwise be possible; but also giving a substantial part of the resources through GiveDirectly for other goods to be allocated more dynamically by the market. Which is someone “we” (i.e. GiveWell) don’t currently do.