Effective altruism asks how limited resources can be used to produce as much good as possible. My question is about the environment in which those resources and motivations are generated in the first place. If a person repeatedly gives time, money or effort to create value for others, can a system make that behavior economically sustainable so that the person can continue doing it?
It’s obvious that many of the motivations behind people investing their effort in generating economic value—money—have nothing to do with receiving economic goods in return—money.
Encouraging altruistic motivation consists of generating emotional benefits in exchange for economic ones. Apparently, the current EA movement seems content with the proven emotional gratification that altruistic donation provides to the donor. This gratification certainly exists… but it seems clear that, at this point, it is entirely insufficient and, therefore, dooms the entire movement to failure.
In a family or a small community, people know who contributes. Reputation is embodied in memory and repeated contact
Personally, I doubt that perfecting the reputational model (“indirect reciprocity”) using technology is the solution to encouraging altruism. My doubt stems from the fact that, psychologically, the donor will be conditioned by their economic self-interest and won’t exercise their prosocial behavioral skills (such as empathy, compassion, affection, and care) as much. But, in any case, hvoyander has made a creative contribution regarding the fundamental problem of altruism… which is how to generate more altruists (something very rare to see in this forum).
In my opinion, the best way to generate more altruists is to connect the phenomenon of economic altruism with the development of the psychological qualities most characteristic of prosocial affective behavior, which can be strongly motivating for many temperaments. A subculture of benevolence can be attractive to people interested in strengthening their affective and extremely trusting relationships within a context of enlightened rationality. We need more “saints” and fewer “ordinary people.” More ethics of virtue and less utilitarianism.
It’s obvious that many of the motivations behind people investing their effort in generating economic value—money—have nothing to do with receiving economic goods in return—money.
Encouraging altruistic motivation consists of generating emotional benefits in exchange for economic ones. Apparently, the current EA movement seems content with the proven emotional gratification that altruistic donation provides to the donor. This gratification certainly exists… but it seems clear that, at this point, it is entirely insufficient and, therefore, dooms the entire movement to failure.
Personally, I doubt that perfecting the reputational model (“indirect reciprocity”) using technology is the solution to encouraging altruism. My doubt stems from the fact that, psychologically, the donor will be conditioned by their economic self-interest and won’t exercise their prosocial behavioral skills (such as empathy, compassion, affection, and care) as much. But, in any case, hvoyander has made a creative contribution regarding the fundamental problem of altruism… which is how to generate more altruists (something very rare to see in this forum).
In my opinion, the best way to generate more altruists is to connect the phenomenon of economic altruism with the development of the psychological qualities most characteristic of prosocial affective behavior, which can be strongly motivating for many temperaments. A subculture of benevolence can be attractive to people interested in strengthening their affective and extremely trusting relationships within a context of enlightened rationality. We need more “saints” and fewer “ordinary people.” More ethics of virtue and less utilitarianism.
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/uaGR6yhpEmdtgncuZ/altruism-and-minority-influence
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/7tjbCRCb6FSdCKgyP/leo-tolstoy-s-philosophy-altruism-and-non-violence