I have said this in other spaces since the FTX collapse: The original idea of EA, as I see it, was that it was supposed to make the kind of research work done at philanthropic foundations open and usable for well-to-do-but-not-Bill-Gates-rich Westerners. While it’s inadvisable to outright condemn billionaires using EA work to orient their donations for… obvious reasons, I do think there is a moral hazard in billionaires funding meta EA. Now, the most extreme policy would be to have meta EA be solely funded by membership dues (as plenty organizations are!). I’m not sure if that would really be workable for the amounts of money involved, but some kind of donation cap could be plausibly envisaged.
The original idea of EA, as I see it, was that it was supposed to make the kind of research work done at philanthropic foundations open and usable for well-to-do-but-not-Bill-Gates-rich Westerners
This part doesn’t resonate with me. I worked at 80k early on (~2014) and have been in the community for a long time. Then, I think the main thing was excitement over “doing good the most effectively”. The assumption was that most philanthropic foundations weren’t doing a good job—not that we wanted regular people to participate, specifically. I think then, most community members would be pretty excited about the idea of the key EA ideas growing as quickly as possible, and billionaires would help with that.
GiveWell specifically was started with a focus on smaller donors, but there was a always a separation between them and EA.
(I am of course more sympathetic to a general skepticism around any billionaire or other overwhelming donor. Though I’m personally also skeptical of most other donation options to other degrees—I want some pragmatic options that can understand the various strengths and weaknesses of different donors and respond accordingly)
GiveWell specifically was started with a focus on smaller donors, but there was a always a separation between them and EA.
… I’m confused by what you would mean by early EA then? As the history of the movement is generally told it started by the merger of three strands: GiveWell (which attempt to make charity effectiveness research available for well-to-do-but-not-Bill-Gates-rich Westerners), GWWC (which attempt to convince well-to-do-but-not-Bill-Gates-rich Westerners to give to charity too), and the rationalists and proto-longtermists (not relevant here).
Criticisms of ineffective charities (stereotypically, the Make a Wish Foundation) could be part of that, but they’re specifically the charities well-to-do-but-not-Bill-Gates-rich Westerners tend to donate to when they do donate, I don’t think people were going out claiming the biggest billionaire philanthropic foundations (like, say, well, the Bill Gates Foundation) didn’t knew what to do with their money.
Quickly: 1. Some of this gets into semantics. There are some things that are more “key inspirations for what was formally called EA” and other things that “were formally called EA, or called themselves EA.” GiveWell was highly influential around EA, but I think it was created before EA was coined, and I don’t think they publicly associated as “EA” for some time (if ever). 2. I think we’re straying from the main topic at this point. One issue is that while I think we disagree on some of the details/semantics of early EA, I also don’t think that matters much for the greater issue at hand. “The specific reason why the EA community technically started” is pretty different from “what people in this scene currently care about.”
Didn’t really want to in depth go beyond what @Ozzie Gooen already said and mentioning the event that originally prompted that line of thought, but added a link to @David Thorstad’s sequence on the subject.
I have said this in other spaces since the FTX collapse: The original idea of EA, as I see it, was that it was supposed to make the kind of research work done at philanthropic foundations open and usable for well-to-do-but-not-Bill-Gates-rich Westerners. While it’s inadvisable to outright condemn billionaires using EA work to orient their donations for… obvious reasons, I do think there is a moral hazard in billionaires funding meta EA. Now, the most extreme policy would be to have meta EA be solely funded by membership dues (as plenty organizations are!). I’m not sure if that would really be workable for the amounts of money involved, but some kind of donation cap could be plausibly envisaged.
This part doesn’t resonate with me. I worked at 80k early on (~2014) and have been in the community for a long time. Then, I think the main thing was excitement over “doing good the most effectively”. The assumption was that most philanthropic foundations weren’t doing a good job—not that we wanted regular people to participate, specifically. I think then, most community members would be pretty excited about the idea of the key EA ideas growing as quickly as possible, and billionaires would help with that.
GiveWell specifically was started with a focus on smaller donors, but there was a always a separation between them and EA.
(I am of course more sympathetic to a general skepticism around any billionaire or other overwhelming donor. Though I’m personally also skeptical of most other donation options to other degrees—I want some pragmatic options that can understand the various strengths and weaknesses of different donors and respond accordingly)
… I’m confused by what you would mean by early EA then? As the history of the movement is generally told it started by the merger of three strands: GiveWell (which attempt to make charity effectiveness research available for well-to-do-but-not-Bill-Gates-rich Westerners), GWWC (which attempt to convince well-to-do-but-not-Bill-Gates-rich Westerners to give to charity too), and the rationalists and proto-longtermists (not relevant here).
Criticisms of ineffective charities (stereotypically, the Make a Wish Foundation) could be part of that, but they’re specifically the charities well-to-do-but-not-Bill-Gates-rich Westerners tend to donate to when they do donate, I don’t think people were going out claiming the biggest billionaire philanthropic foundations (like, say, well, the Bill Gates Foundation) didn’t knew what to do with their money.
Quickly:
1. Some of this gets into semantics. There are some things that are more “key inspirations for what was formally called EA” and other things that “were formally called EA, or called themselves EA.” GiveWell was highly influential around EA, but I think it was created before EA was coined, and I don’t think they publicly associated as “EA” for some time (if ever).
2. I think we’re straying from the main topic at this point. One issue is that while I think we disagree on some of the details/semantics of early EA, I also don’t think that matters much for the greater issue at hand. “The specific reason why the EA community technically started” is pretty different from “what people in this scene currently care about.”
It might be helpful to clarify what you mean by “moral hazard” here.
Didn’t really want to in depth go beyond what @Ozzie Gooen already said and mentioning the event that originally prompted that line of thought, but added a link to @David Thorstad’s sequence on the subject.