Just listened to this post right before this recent post on the giving pledge.
I think a lot (probably a majority) of EAs think one should try to live as frugally as possible and then donate any surplus.
I think a lot (a majority?) of EAs think it is good if more people do this.
Is that not socialism?
I think EA is more about leading by example, changing norms and not antagonizing the “others”. Like a nice kind of socialism? And EA is quite inclusive by trying to accommodate other causes and approaches too, such as AI safety researchers that live perhaps a bit more of a lavish lifestyle without donating because there is not only one way of doing good and people are constrained differently (e.g. having a social circle spending a lot). And I guess we also have scepticism about whether what we are doing is good or not and thus it seems better to be humble to other people’s approaches to doing good—it’s a complex world and many previous attempts of doing great good have failed miserably. In socialist circles I feel there is less of such inclusivity and humility.
Just listened to this post right before this recent post on the giving pledge.
I think a lot (probably a majority) of EAs think one should try to live as frugally as possible and then donate any surplus.
I think a lot (a majority?) of EAs think it is good if more people do this.
Is that not socialism?
I think EA is more about leading by example, changing norms and not antagonizing the “others”. Like a nice kind of socialism? And EA is quite inclusive by trying to accommodate other causes and approaches too, such as AI safety researchers that live perhaps a bit more of a lavish lifestyle without donating because there is not only one way of doing good and people are constrained differently (e.g. having a social circle spending a lot). And I guess we also have scepticism about whether what we are doing is good or not and thus it seems better to be humble to other people’s approaches to doing good—it’s a complex world and many previous attempts of doing great good have failed miserably. In socialist circles I feel there is less of such inclusivity and humility.