He’s setting a threshold of $5k for how much we’d be willing to pay to avert a death, which is much too low. I do agree there is some threshold at which you’d be very reasonable to stop trying to help others and just do what makes you happy. Where this threshold is depends on many things, especially how well-off you are, but I would expect it to be more in the $100k range than the $5k range for rich-country effective altruists.
It would be interesting to see some data on this. Maybe the EA survey could ask something about it? Something like:
What is the most you would be willing to spend in order to save the life of a randomly chosen human? Assume that AMF and other charities do not exist—the alternative is spending the money on yourself.
I agree the distribution would be interesting! But it depends how many such opportunities there might be, no? What about:
“Imagine that over time the low hanging fruit is picked and further opportunities for charitable giving get progressively more expensive in terms of cost per life saved equivalents (CPLSE). At what CPLSE, in dollars, would you no longer donate?”
Do you mean the number of opportunities in the future, or the ability to donate larger amounts of money right now? We could do:
What is the most dollars you would be willing to donate in order to save the life of a randomly chosen human? Assume this is the only opportunity you’ll ever get to save a life by donating—all other money you have must be spent on yourself and your family.
and also the endowment effect reversal:
If offered a choice between saving a random stranger’s life and an amount of money, what is the smallest number of dollars you would have to be offered to choose that option? Assume you will only be offered this once, and do not have any opportunities to spend or donate money to save other people.
Your version seems good too, though I would worry that introducing the temporal element and background of progress might bias things in some way.
It seems like that question would interact weirdly with expectations of future income: as a college student I donate ~1% of expenses, but if I could only save one life, right now, I would probably try to take out a large, high interest loan to donate a large sum. That depends on availability of loans, risk aversion, expectations of future income, etc. much more than it does on my moral values.
It would be interesting to see some data on this. Maybe the EA survey could ask something about it? Something like:
What is the most you would be willing to spend in order to save the life of a randomly chosen human? Assume that AMF and other charities do not exist—the alternative is spending the money on yourself.
I can imagine the distribution being quite wide.
I agree the distribution would be interesting! But it depends how many such opportunities there might be, no? What about:
“Imagine that over time the low hanging fruit is picked and further opportunities for charitable giving get progressively more expensive in terms of cost per life saved equivalents (CPLSE). At what CPLSE, in dollars, would you no longer donate?”
Do you mean the number of opportunities in the future, or the ability to donate larger amounts of money right now? We could do:
What is the most dollars you would be willing to donate in order to save the life of a randomly chosen human? Assume this is the only opportunity you’ll ever get to save a life by donating—all other money you have must be spent on yourself and your family.
and also the endowment effect reversal:
If offered a choice between saving a random stranger’s life and an amount of money, what is the smallest number of dollars you would have to be offered to choose that option? Assume you will only be offered this once, and do not have any opportunities to spend or donate money to save other people.
Your version seems good too, though I would worry that introducing the temporal element and background of progress might bias things in some way.
It seems like that question would interact weirdly with expectations of future income: as a college student I donate ~1% of expenses, but if I could only save one life, right now, I would probably try to take out a large, high interest loan to donate a large sum. That depends on availability of loans, risk aversion, expectations of future income, etc. much more than it does on my moral values.