I agree that the arguments people are making here don’t seem very scope-sensitive, and I’m not about to make a very scope-sensitive argument either. However, it’s worth considering the possibility that the damage to the community and public trust in EA could be greater. How many potential EAs do we lose out on? How much harder is it to engage politically and with institutions? We’ve been having a hard time spending money well, at least within longtermism, so the extra donations (including extra donations had they not been caught) were plausibly worth much less per dollar than the marginal grants. Poor public perception will make using our resources effectively harder going forward.
I agree that the arguments people are making here don’t seem very scope-sensitive, and I’m not about to make a very scope-sensitive argument either. However, it’s worth considering the possibility that the damage to the community and public trust in EA could be greater. How many potential EAs do we lose out on? How much harder is it to engage politically and with institutions? We’ve been having a hard time spending money well, at least within longtermism, so the extra donations (including extra donations had they not been caught) were plausibly worth much less per dollar than the marginal grants. Poor public perception will make using our resources effectively harder going forward.