I’d consider this a question that doesn’t benefit from public speculation because every individual might have a different financial situation.
Truth be told “earning really well” is a very ambiguous category. Obviously, if someone were financially stable, eg. consistently earning high 5 figure or six figure dollars/euros/pounds/francs or more annually(and having non-trivial savings) and having a loan-free house, their spending would almost always reflect discretionary interests and personal opinions (like ’do I donate to charity or not”).
For everyone not financially stable, ‘donating to charity’ may not:
(a) be a discretionary decision and
(b) be a simple decision—that is, increasing charitable donations too soon comes at the expense of not investing in one’s personal ability to weather volatility, which has knock-on qualitative effects on career progression (especially to senior management roles), future earnings potential and lifetime charitable contributions. Additionally, not getting one’s personal finances in order early on contributes directly to great personal and family stress, which then has knock on effects on everything else.
tl;dr: when you’re broke, money allocation is a high-risk, high-stress headache. The long term solution is to prioritize becoming the opposite of broke, i.e; financially stable, first.
also see: Julia Wise’s post on the logistics of giving.
That analysis would be more compelling if the focus of the question were on a specific individual or small group. But, at least as I read it, the question is about the giving patterns of a moderately numerous subclass of EAs (working in AI + “earning really well”) relative to the larger group of EAs.
I’m not aware of any reason the dynamics you describe would be more present in this subclass than in the broader population. So a question asking about subgroup differences seems appropriate to me.
Edit: I see your point. Still, I’ll leave the below comment as-is, because from my (3rd world, generational financial instability, no health insurance, filial obligations etc.) point of view I think the perspective of a broke person ought to be represented.
But what counts as “numerous”, though? How many EAs are actually working in AI—fifty people? A hundred people? Who’s collecting data on this subgroup versus the larger EA group?
I agree that the question itself is appropriate and there’s nothing wrong with it. I was saying this question doesn’t benefit from public speculation, because, for one thing, there isn’t any reliable data for objective analysis, and for another, the logistics of an individual’s personal finance are a bigger factor in how or how much a person donates, at the non-millionaire level (in this subclass and the broader population).
I’d consider this a question that doesn’t benefit from public speculation because every individual might have a different financial situation.
Truth be told “earning really well” is a very ambiguous category. Obviously, if someone were financially stable, eg. consistently earning high 5 figure or six figure dollars/euros/pounds/francs or more annually(and having non-trivial savings) and having a loan-free house, their spending would almost always reflect discretionary interests and personal opinions (like ’do I donate to charity or not”).
For everyone not financially stable, ‘donating to charity’ may not:
(a) be a discretionary decision and
(b) be a simple decision—that is, increasing charitable donations too soon comes at the expense of not investing in one’s personal ability to weather volatility, which has knock-on qualitative effects on career progression (especially to senior management roles), future earnings potential and lifetime charitable contributions. Additionally, not getting one’s personal finances in order early on contributes directly to great personal and family stress, which then has knock on effects on everything else.
tl;dr: when you’re broke, money allocation is a high-risk, high-stress headache. The long term solution is to prioritize becoming the opposite of broke, i.e; financially stable, first.
also see: Julia Wise’s post on the logistics of giving.
That analysis would be more compelling if the focus of the question were on a specific individual or small group. But, at least as I read it, the question is about the giving patterns of a moderately numerous subclass of EAs (working in AI + “earning really well”) relative to the larger group of EAs.
I’m not aware of any reason the dynamics you describe would be more present in this subclass than in the broader population. So a question asking about subgroup differences seems appropriate to me.
Edit: I see your point. Still, I’ll leave the below comment as-is, because from my (3rd world, generational financial instability, no health insurance, filial obligations etc.) point of view I think the perspective of a broke person ought to be represented.
But what counts as “numerous”, though? How many EAs are actually working in AI—fifty people? A hundred people? Who’s collecting data on this subgroup versus the larger EA group?
I agree that the question itself is appropriate and there’s nothing wrong with it. I was saying this question doesn’t benefit from public speculation, because, for one thing, there isn’t any reliable data for objective analysis, and for another, the logistics of an individual’s personal finance are a bigger factor in how or how much a person donates, at the non-millionaire level (in this subclass and the broader population).