I agree with the general gist of this piece, but I would strike a note of caution about the idea of “Improving civilisation now so it can achieve long term goals more effectively in the future.” If our goal is to achieve long term goals and to change society in the way most likely to achieve them, then we can’t simply improve society or reduce poverty—we need to ask ourselves exactly how we should improve society or reduce poverty to improve our long-term prospects. The mere existence of flow-through effects doesn’t tell us which intervention has the best flow-through effects. For instance, I tend to favor education-focused poverty alleviation because there’s a lot of documentation of positive flow-through effects from education on everything from violence to economic prosperity. But I think flow-through effects can often mask convenient thinking.
I agree with the general gist of this piece, but I would strike a note of caution about the idea of “Improving civilisation now so it can achieve long term goals more effectively in the future.” If our goal is to achieve long term goals and to change society in the way most likely to achieve them, then we can’t simply improve society or reduce poverty—we need to ask ourselves exactly how we should improve society or reduce poverty to improve our long-term prospects. The mere existence of flow-through effects doesn’t tell us which intervention has the best flow-through effects. For instance, I tend to favor education-focused poverty alleviation because there’s a lot of documentation of positive flow-through effects from education on everything from violence to economic prosperity. But I think flow-through effects can often mask convenient thinking.