This is an important question, but I think there are many considerations that are neglected in this post. The only argument seems to be that some people are much more rich and powerful than others, which is true but not very informative. I certainly don’t think that it’s warranted to conclude that the EA movement shouldn’t be a mass movement on the basis of the arguments in this post.
One important consideration that isn’t discussed is what would be the long-term consequences of a strategy that focused on high net individuals? Also, the “feel hurtful”-argument seems to me to be a straw man (did anyone ever argue that we should not be elitist simply because it feels hurtful to be accused of elitism?).
Also, the top 1% - a far larger segment of the population than the likes of Gates, Musk, etc—actually only earn a bit more than 10% of post-tax income even in the US (which is far more unequal than most other rich countries). Even if the ultra-rich earn orders of magnitude more than each of the rest of us, we still earn much more than them together, which prima facie seems to be a reason to try to reach non-elite people as well.
Wealth is much more concentrated than income, and wealth might be more important. The top 1% of Americans own 43% of total wealth, and the top 0.1% own 22%.
Also, the higher your income, the larger the fraction you can comfortably donate. Something much higher than 10% of total potential donated income will be in the top 1%.
This underestimates the potential donations from people who don’t have high net worth. Wealth is largely a function of what percentage of income you put into savings, which is much higher for wealthier people. But you can donate out of your income, not just out of your savings. At the same time, if you’re not saving much money then you might not have much wiggle room in your budget to donate more, so this maybe isn’t a huge consideration.
This is an important question, but I think there are many considerations that are neglected in this post. The only argument seems to be that some people are much more rich and powerful than others, which is true but not very informative. I certainly don’t think that it’s warranted to conclude that the EA movement shouldn’t be a mass movement on the basis of the arguments in this post.
One important consideration that isn’t discussed is what would be the long-term consequences of a strategy that focused on high net individuals? Also, the “feel hurtful”-argument seems to me to be a straw man (did anyone ever argue that we should not be elitist simply because it feels hurtful to be accused of elitism?).
Also, the top 1% - a far larger segment of the population than the likes of Gates, Musk, etc—actually only earn a bit more than 10% of post-tax income even in the US (which is far more unequal than most other rich countries). Even if the ultra-rich earn orders of magnitude more than each of the rest of us, we still earn much more than them together, which prima facie seems to be a reason to try to reach non-elite people as well.
Wealth is much more concentrated than income, and wealth might be more important. The top 1% of Americans own 43% of total wealth, and the top 0.1% own 22%.
Also, the higher your income, the larger the fraction you can comfortably donate. Something much higher than 10% of total potential donated income will be in the top 1%.
This underestimates the potential donations from people who don’t have high net worth. Wealth is largely a function of what percentage of income you put into savings, which is much higher for wealthier people. But you can donate out of your income, not just out of your savings. At the same time, if you’re not saving much money then you might not have much wiggle room in your budget to donate more, so this maybe isn’t a huge consideration.