This post tickled my brain in a funny/good way, so thanks for that. I’m still left a little dumbfounded. My thought is if you think of taking EA actions from a units-of-good-accomplished-per-unit-of-personal-sacrifice perspective, donating 10% of my income and giving up meat feel about equally hard to me (and I do both), though I imagine this feels very different for other people and I don’t know what norms are appropriate to make/enforce around how much and what kinds of sacrifices people should make.
FWIW I’m currently reducetarian (formally vegetarian), and currently give around 2% of my income. I don’t give more because I don’t think it’s the strategically correct choice for me at the moment. In the past I’ve given 10%.
But, I consider it *way* easier to give 10% of my income than to change my diet. My income has fluctuated from 50k to 90k and back and not really changed my lifestyle all that much. Changing my donations requires basically a one time change to a monthly auto-payment thingy. Changing my diet requires continuous willpower.
The trick to not making it require continuous willpower is to not think of the stuff you’re not meant to be eating as an option. Pre-committing to not considering it as food means you don’t have to exercise willpower at every meal (this is similar to not agonising over every purchase once you’ve set a donation budget, although admittedly that is easier given the auto-payment thingy).
Also, If you’re not fussy about food, being vegan is, in a way, simpler and easier when eating out, as often you only have one option to choose from (although this is less true now).
This post tickled my brain in a funny/good way, so thanks for that. I’m still left a little dumbfounded. My thought is if you think of taking EA actions from a units-of-good-accomplished-per-unit-of-personal-sacrifice perspective, donating 10% of my income and giving up meat feel about equally hard to me (and I do both), though I imagine this feels very different for other people and I don’t know what norms are appropriate to make/enforce around how much and what kinds of sacrifices people should make.
FWIW I’m currently reducetarian (formally vegetarian), and currently give around 2% of my income. I don’t give more because I don’t think it’s the strategically correct choice for me at the moment. In the past I’ve given 10%.
But, I consider it *way* easier to give 10% of my income than to change my diet. My income has fluctuated from 50k to 90k and back and not really changed my lifestyle all that much. Changing my donations requires basically a one time change to a monthly auto-payment thingy. Changing my diet requires continuous willpower.
The trick to not making it require continuous willpower is to not think of the stuff you’re not meant to be eating as an option. Pre-committing to not considering it as food means you don’t have to exercise willpower at every meal (this is similar to not agonising over every purchase once you’ve set a donation budget, although admittedly that is easier given the auto-payment thingy).
Also, If you’re not fussy about food, being vegan is, in a way, simpler and easier when eating out, as often you only have one option to choose from (although this is less true now).
I agree giving up meat seems around as hard as donating 10%. Going vegan seems much harder again, though—maybe as hard as giving 20% or 25%?
(I currently eat meat. I occasionally go vegetarian for a month at a time, but have never gone vegan.)
I agree that this also feels the same to me (I give ~20% but I’m not vegan). Though, again, probably feels much different to other people.