You’re right to say people had been assuming SBF’s wealth belonged to EA: I had. In the legal sense it wasn’t, and we paid a price for that. I think it was fair to argue that the wealth ‘rightfully’ belonged to the EA community, in the sense that SBF should defer to representatives of EA on how it should be used, and would be defecting by spending a few billion on personal interests. The reason for that kind of principle is to avoid a situation where EA is captured or unduly influenced by the idiosyncratic preferences of a couple of mega-donors.
The answer is different for each side of your slash.
I see two kinds of relationships EA can have to megadonors:
uneasy, arms’ length, untrusting, but still taking their money
friendly, valorizing, celebratory, going to the same parties, conditional on the donor ceding control of a significant fraction of their wealth to a donor-advised fund (rather than just pledging to give)
You’re right to say people had been assuming SBF’s wealth belonged to EA: I had. In the legal sense it wasn’t, and we paid a price for that. I think it was fair to argue that the wealth ‘rightfully’ belonged to the EA community, in the sense that SBF should defer to representatives of EA on how it should be used, and would be defecting by spending a few billion on personal interests. The reason for that kind of principle is to avoid a situation where EA is captured or unduly influenced by the idiosyncratic preferences of a couple of mega-donors.
Are you arguing that EA shouldn’t associate with / accept money from mega-donors unless they give EA the entirety of their wealth?
The answer is different for each side of your slash.
I see two kinds of relationships EA can have to megadonors:
uneasy, arms’ length, untrusting, but still taking their money
friendly, valorizing, celebratory, going to the same parties, conditional on the donor ceding control of a significant fraction of their wealth to a donor-advised fund (rather than just pledging to give)