Notice that the narrowest possible offset is avoiding an action. This perfectly undoes the harm one would have done by taking the action. Every time I stop myself from doing harm I can think of myself as buying an offset of the harm I would have done for the price it cost me to avoid it.
I think your arguments against offsetting apply to all actions. The conclusion would be to never avoid doing harm unless it’s the cheapest way to help.
Yep. Except I think this would be most of the time, since it people tend to dislike it when you harm others in big or unusual ways, and doing so is often illegal. So at the very least you frequently take hits to your reputation (and the reputation of EA, theoretically) and effectiveness when you cause big unusual harms.
Notice that the narrowest possible offset is avoiding an action. This perfectly undoes the harm one would have done by taking the action. Every time I stop myself from doing harm I can think of myself as buying an offset of the harm I would have done for the price it cost me to avoid it.
I think your arguments against offsetting apply to all actions. The conclusion would be to never avoid doing harm unless it’s the cheapest way to help.
Yep. Except I think this would be most of the time, since it people tend to dislike it when you harm others in big or unusual ways, and doing so is often illegal. So at the very least you frequently take hits to your reputation (and the reputation of EA, theoretically) and effectiveness when you cause big unusual harms.