I’m curious how others think about this, how you cope with this tension, and if you can imagine spending so much time on one human or animal (who is a stranger to you).
Personally no, not really—I wouldn’t spent 1000+ dollars or a day’s work on an animal who is a stranger to me, or even any an animal that I know. For a human stranger I might, but there are limits there too. I think to some degree i I can viscerally feel in my feelings as well as my thoughts opportunity costs above a certain magnitude, so it doesn’t really feel like cold calculations over feelings to me. It also helps to personally know more people in need than I can realistically help, and so being accustomed to feeling in triage even before taking abstract strangers into account.
But I sometimes do smaller versions of this. For example, last week I tried to catch a mouse and release it in a location where it might survive rather than killing it, even when that costs an extra hour which could be spent doing much more good. I don’t think this is a problem at all, it’s a more impactful use of my time than scrolling on the internet which I also do sometimes. Why should only good actions be subject to scrutiny? So you helped a dog, instead of buying a fancier car, why should anyone have a problem with that?
When your friend isn’t criticizing that you bought a more expensive apartment or laptop than is strictly needed to maximize effectiveness, then why should they decide to criticize your act of kindness to a dog? There are institutions with billions in resources who spend it on nothing useful, or war, who wants to worry that one little dog has gotten some good fortune?
I think it is a big mistake to bring those who are doing a little small bit of good, under more negative scrutiny than if they had done nothing.
what you say relates to the last point I made, I think: what does the behavior (time or money) compete with (or displace). Is that money or time taken from one’s charity budget, or from e.g. one’s entertainment budget? I guess there’s good ways to track that if one is honest with oneself.
Personally no, not really—I wouldn’t spent 1000+ dollars or a day’s work on an animal who is a stranger to me, or even any an animal that I know. For a human stranger I might, but there are limits there too. I think to some degree i I can viscerally feel in my feelings as well as my thoughts opportunity costs above a certain magnitude, so it doesn’t really feel like cold calculations over feelings to me. It also helps to personally know more people in need than I can realistically help, and so being accustomed to feeling in triage even before taking abstract strangers into account.
But I sometimes do smaller versions of this. For example, last week I tried to catch a mouse and release it in a location where it might survive rather than killing it, even when that costs an extra hour which could be spent doing much more good. I don’t think this is a problem at all, it’s a more impactful use of my time than scrolling on the internet which I also do sometimes. Why should only good actions be subject to scrutiny? So you helped a dog, instead of buying a fancier car, why should anyone have a problem with that?
When your friend isn’t criticizing that you bought a more expensive apartment or laptop than is strictly needed to maximize effectiveness, then why should they decide to criticize your act of kindness to a dog? There are institutions with billions in resources who spend it on nothing useful, or war, who wants to worry that one little dog has gotten some good fortune?
I think it is a big mistake to bring those who are doing a little small bit of good, under more negative scrutiny than if they had done nothing.
what you say relates to the last point I made, I think: what does the behavior (time or money) compete with (or displace). Is that money or time taken from one’s charity budget, or from e.g. one’s entertainment budget? I guess there’s good ways to track that if one is honest with oneself.