Executive summary: While both effectiveness-focused and magnificence-focused approaches to charity have flaws, the best path forward combines multiple approaches while prioritizing basic needs and existential risks, with cultural funding focused on accessibility and preservation.
Key points:
Effectiveness-focused charity (like EA) prioritizes saving lives but risks creating a minimal-wellbeing world, while magnificence-focused charity often neglects basic needs of the poor.
Current arts/culture funding is highly concentrated in wealthy areas—over 50% goes to the top 2% of projects, primarily benefiting already-privileged communities.
Global inequality means most people can’t access “finer things”—global GDP per capita is ~$13,000, and nearly half the world lives below $6.85/day.
Recommended balanced approach: maintain diverse philanthropy but expand beyond local bubbles, focus cultural funding on preservation and scalable works, and increase funding for existential risks.
Key crux: Whether charity should optimize for measurable impact (like preventing deaths) versus funding harder-to-quantify benefits like cultural institutions and beauty.
This comment was auto-generated by the EA Forum Team. Feel free to point out issues with this summary by replying to the comment, and contact us if you have feedback.
Executive summary: While both effectiveness-focused and magnificence-focused approaches to charity have flaws, the best path forward combines multiple approaches while prioritizing basic needs and existential risks, with cultural funding focused on accessibility and preservation.
Key points:
Effectiveness-focused charity (like EA) prioritizes saving lives but risks creating a minimal-wellbeing world, while magnificence-focused charity often neglects basic needs of the poor.
Current arts/culture funding is highly concentrated in wealthy areas—over 50% goes to the top 2% of projects, primarily benefiting already-privileged communities.
Global inequality means most people can’t access “finer things”—global GDP per capita is ~$13,000, and nearly half the world lives below $6.85/day.
Recommended balanced approach: maintain diverse philanthropy but expand beyond local bubbles, focus cultural funding on preservation and scalable works, and increase funding for existential risks.
Key crux: Whether charity should optimize for measurable impact (like preventing deaths) versus funding harder-to-quantify benefits like cultural institutions and beauty.
This comment was auto-generated by the EA Forum Team. Feel free to point out issues with this summary by replying to the comment, and contact us if you have feedback.