I agree that, if you care about the far future, mental health (along with poverty, physical and pretty much anything apart from X-risk focused interventions) will look at least look like a waste of time. Further analysis may reveal this to be a bit more complicated, but this isn’t the time for such complicated, further analysis.
I don’t want it to be a cause area as it will plausibly compete for time/attention/etc
I think this probably isn’t true, just because those interested in current-human vs far-future stuff are two different audiences. It’s more a question of whether, in as much people are going to focus on current stuff, would do more good if they focused on mental health over poverty. There’s a comment about moral trade to be made here.
I also find the apparent underlying attitude here unsettling. It’s sort of ‘I think your views are stupid and I’m confident I know best so I just want to shut them out of the conversation rather than let others make up their own mind’ approach. On a personal level, I find this thinking (which, unless i’m paranoid, I’ve encountered in the EA world before) really annoying. I say some stuff in the area in this post on moral inclusivity.
I also think both of you being too hypothetical about mental health. Halstead and Snowden have a new report where they reckon Strong Minds is $225/DALY, which is comparable to AMF if you think AMF’s live saving is equivalent to 40 years of life-improving treatments.
Drugs policy reform I consider to be less at the ‘this might be a good idea but we have no reason to think so’ stage and more at the ‘oh wow, if this is true it’s really promising and we should look into it to find out if it is true’ stage. I’m unclear what the bar is to be annointed an ‘official cause’ or who we should allow to be in charge of such this censorious judgements.
Just to chip in.
I agree that, if you care about the far future, mental health (along with poverty, physical and pretty much anything apart from X-risk focused interventions) will look at least look like a waste of time. Further analysis may reveal this to be a bit more complicated, but this isn’t the time for such complicated, further analysis.
I think this probably isn’t true, just because those interested in current-human vs far-future stuff are two different audiences. It’s more a question of whether, in as much people are going to focus on current stuff, would do more good if they focused on mental health over poverty. There’s a comment about moral trade to be made here.
I also find the apparent underlying attitude here unsettling. It’s sort of ‘I think your views are stupid and I’m confident I know best so I just want to shut them out of the conversation rather than let others make up their own mind’ approach. On a personal level, I find this thinking (which, unless i’m paranoid, I’ve encountered in the EA world before) really annoying. I say some stuff in the area in this post on moral inclusivity.
I also think both of you being too hypothetical about mental health. Halstead and Snowden have a new report where they reckon Strong Minds is $225/DALY, which is comparable to AMF if you think AMF’s live saving is equivalent to 40 years of life-improving treatments.
Drugs policy reform I consider to be less at the ‘this might be a good idea but we have no reason to think so’ stage and more at the ‘oh wow, if this is true it’s really promising and we should look into it to find out if it is true’ stage. I’m unclear what the bar is to be annointed an ‘official cause’ or who we should allow to be in charge of such this censorious judgements.