I upvoted because I too suffer from the fact that EA Philosophy was created by people of high-income countries, to convert other people from high-income countries.
However, I disagree completely that EA is
[...] always going to have a limited audience
In my opinion:
It’s true that a dollar spent on a developed country does less good than a dollar spent on a “less developed” country.
However, a dollar spent on an efficient cause inside your own country does more good than a dollar not spent on EA at all!
So, if the counterfactual for Effective Altruism is… no altruism at all… then it’s better for the world to take a less cosmopolitan worldview and donate mostly to effective causes inside your own country.
Of course, knowing the wild income disparities between even our “middle-income” countries and those from the most underdeveloped regions, I do think that we have a moral imperative to give … perhaps not all that we can, but at least some of what we can.
Full-disclosure:
I donated a little to EA causes, but since sharing my donations with my girlfriend, I decided to save up that money to invest and become an entrepreneur.
My exit plan is for it to become first a source of self-employment and then to sell it. If successful, then I will resume my giving until reaching 10% of profits once I sell the business.
I upvoted because I too suffer from the fact that EA Philosophy was created by people of high-income countries, to convert other people from high-income countries.
However, I disagree completely that EA is
In my opinion:
It’s true that a dollar spent on a developed country does less good than a dollar spent on a “less developed” country.
However, a dollar spent on an efficient cause inside your own country does more good than a dollar not spent on EA at all!
So, if the counterfactual for Effective Altruism is… no altruism at all… then it’s better for the world to take a less cosmopolitan worldview and donate mostly to effective causes inside your own country.
Of course, knowing the wild income disparities between even our “middle-income” countries and those from the most underdeveloped regions, I do think that we have a moral imperative to give … perhaps not all that we can, but at least some of what we can.
Full-disclosure:
I donated a little to EA causes, but since sharing my donations with my girlfriend, I decided to save up that money to invest and become an entrepreneur.
My exit plan is for it to become first a source of self-employment and then to sell it. If successful, then I will resume my giving until reaching 10% of profits once I sell the business.