In fact, ignoring concerns about message complexity and not trying to be too fancy, I might suggest we eliminate any hard percentage standard in favor of a recommended % donation that scales with income. So somebody earning < $10,000-$20,000/year might be advised not to donate. Someone earning $80,000 might be asked to donate 10%. Someone earning $10,000,000/year might be asked to donate 90%. These are just rough numbers. But I think this might be better treated in book form or in tailored appeals to individual people. In the EA community I think it would be nice if we often discussed specific ways we could refine and tailor this community standard in a way that’s optimized for “it’s easy to understand how this number was computed yet it makes sense for me” rather than being optimized for compatibility with a sound bite in a media appearance.
That would be more accurate, but doing it well would start to feel like a tax return. But going on income alone without considering cost of living, debt obligations, family size, etc. would produce inaccurate results.
Maybe it could be a range—e.g., We recommend the average person earning $80K a year donate 11%; for most people at this income we would recommend donating somewhere between 8-14% depending on personal circumstances. (I changed 10 percent from your example to 11 percent as a starting point, because I think the median person would assign themselves a slightly-less-than-median point in the range.)
In fact, ignoring concerns about message complexity and not trying to be too fancy, I might suggest we eliminate any hard percentage standard in favor of a recommended % donation that scales with income. So somebody earning < $10,000-$20,000/year might be advised not to donate. Someone earning $80,000 might be asked to donate 10%. Someone earning $10,000,000/year might be asked to donate 90%. These are just rough numbers. But I think this might be better treated in book form or in tailored appeals to individual people. In the EA community I think it would be nice if we often discussed specific ways we could refine and tailor this community standard in a way that’s optimized for “it’s easy to understand how this number was computed yet it makes sense for me” rather than being optimized for compatibility with a sound bite in a media appearance.
That would be more accurate, but doing it well would start to feel like a tax return. But going on income alone without considering cost of living, debt obligations, family size, etc. would produce inaccurate results.
Maybe it could be a range—e.g., We recommend the average person earning $80K a year donate 11%; for most people at this income we would recommend donating somewhere between 8-14% depending on personal circumstances. (I changed 10 percent from your example to 11 percent as a starting point, because I think the median person would assign themselves a slightly-less-than-median point in the range.)