I’m a big fan of both progress studies and effective altruism / international development.
I think we may disagree on the size of the trade-offs when it comes to drawing philanthropic funding to these areas. I think there is heavy overlap between the intellectual circles of progress studies and effective altruism, so most of the investment going into one approach is trading off directly against investment in the other approach.
I also think how progress studies aims to achieve American economic growth is very important. Some approaches to growth, eg—re-industrialisation in the West, are more likely to trade-off against growth in LMICs. Other approaches, like focusing on increasing innovation, liberalising immigration and deregulating housing are less likely to do this (and the first-two have obvious and direct spillover benefits to LMICs).
There’s also the moral question around equality. If you value the distribution of utility (eg—you are prioritarian or something similar), you may think that the international development approach is more desirable because it may be more effective at reducing inequality.
It’s also worth thinking about political considerations—I think there is a non-trivial risk that a Trump government turns way from internationalism, and the potential spillover benefits of American growth via larger aid budgets become much smaller. I don’t think there are similar obvious risks with the international development approach. This may be a case for ensuring that the progress studies movement works to maintain cross-partisan consensus on foreign aid, alongside cross-partisan work on science policy, immigration, etc.
(Btw, I love how short, clear and concise your post is!)
Interesting post!
I’m a big fan of both progress studies and effective altruism / international development.
I think we may disagree on the size of the trade-offs when it comes to drawing philanthropic funding to these areas. I think there is heavy overlap between the intellectual circles of progress studies and effective altruism, so most of the investment going into one approach is trading off directly against investment in the other approach.
I also think how progress studies aims to achieve American economic growth is very important. Some approaches to growth, eg—re-industrialisation in the West, are more likely to trade-off against growth in LMICs. Other approaches, like focusing on increasing innovation, liberalising immigration and deregulating housing are less likely to do this (and the first-two have obvious and direct spillover benefits to LMICs).
There’s also the moral question around equality. If you value the distribution of utility (eg—you are prioritarian or something similar), you may think that the international development approach is more desirable because it may be more effective at reducing inequality.
It’s also worth thinking about political considerations—I think there is a non-trivial risk that a Trump government turns way from internationalism, and the potential spillover benefits of American growth via larger aid budgets become much smaller. I don’t think there are similar obvious risks with the international development approach. This may be a case for ensuring that the progress studies movement works to maintain cross-partisan consensus on foreign aid, alongside cross-partisan work on science policy, immigration, etc.
(Btw, I love how short, clear and concise your post is!)
Thank you for reading and for your well thought out comment!