I have to disagree with the “small effects” crowd.
Putting aside any notions of justice (which I suppose is implied), this depends on what you mean by “economic welfare.” A perfectly tuned definition of economic welfare could encompass the economy’s ability to satisfy the needs and desires of all of its people, but we tend to use simpler measures, such as GDP.
If you mean something like GDP, the manner in which such a value increases has an enormous impact on resultant human welfare; particularly on who the benefits flow to. A huge element of this is because of the marginal utility of goods; if you already make $50,000 a year, an additional $1,000 will not have nearly the same impact on your well-being than it would someone who usually subsists on $500. This is one of the central (usually implicit) premises of Give Directly, and perhaps all charity.
The disproportionate reduction of suffering, increase of satisfaction, and avoidance of alienation brought about by a more equal distribution can only be described as “small effects” by those whose material needs were long since fully served, and have little empathy for the less fortunate.
If your goal is merely to increase total economic capacity with no regard for who or what that flows to, your best bet is likely to fund first-world business ventures and research institutions. But maybe you should drop the “altruist” label at that point.
I think you’re missing the important part of the question here. Of course I agree that giving $1000 to someone who makes $500/year is worth a lot more than giving it to someone who makes $50,000/year. The question is, why is increasing equality better than just giving poor people more money? Like, suppose we have two choices:
Give $1000 to someone making $500/year.
Give $1000 to someone making $500/year and also give $1000 to someone making $50,000.
It seems to me that (2) is a little better than (1), even though (1) reduces inequality more.
I have to disagree with the “small effects” crowd.
Putting aside any notions of justice (which I suppose is implied), this depends on what you mean by “economic welfare.” A perfectly tuned definition of economic welfare could encompass the economy’s ability to satisfy the needs and desires of all of its people, but we tend to use simpler measures, such as GDP.
If you mean something like GDP, the manner in which such a value increases has an enormous impact on resultant human welfare; particularly on who the benefits flow to. A huge element of this is because of the marginal utility of goods; if you already make $50,000 a year, an additional $1,000 will not have nearly the same impact on your well-being than it would someone who usually subsists on $500. This is one of the central (usually implicit) premises of Give Directly, and perhaps all charity.
The disproportionate reduction of suffering, increase of satisfaction, and avoidance of alienation brought about by a more equal distribution can only be described as “small effects” by those whose material needs were long since fully served, and have little empathy for the less fortunate.
If your goal is merely to increase total economic capacity with no regard for who or what that flows to, your best bet is likely to fund first-world business ventures and research institutions. But maybe you should drop the “altruist” label at that point.
I’ve never been more worried about this movement.
I think you’re missing the important part of the question here. Of course I agree that giving $1000 to someone who makes $500/year is worth a lot more than giving it to someone who makes $50,000/year. The question is, why is increasing equality better than just giving poor people more money? Like, suppose we have two choices:
Give $1000 to someone making $500/year.
Give $1000 to someone making $500/year and also give $1000 to someone making $50,000.
It seems to me that (2) is a little better than (1), even though (1) reduces inequality more.