One note. Higher real GDP per capita is associated with greater human welfare as you point out, but I think the impact on animal welfare is unclear due to the meat eater problem. I believe boosting economic growth leads to more animal suffering nearterm, as there is a correlation between meat supply per capita and real GDP per capita:
I suspect boosting economic growth decreases animal suffering longterm via making it peak earlier, and therefore decrease faster. Relatedly, many countries have decoupled economic growth from CO2 emissions.
However, I think greater economic growth would lead to a greater relative decrease in the cost-effectiveness of human welfare interventions than in that of animal welfare interventions. Humans currently prioritise human welfare over animal welfare, so increases in purchasing power are mostly spent on human welfare, which makes them become relatively less neglected. In any case, this does not affect my prioritisation much, as I already consider the best animal welfare interventions to be 1.44 k times as cost-effective as GiveWell’s top charities.
Excellent point- I do cite the article from Our World in Data “Meat consumption tends to rise as we get richer”, that includes the figure you pasted.
I agree that we should try to decouple this trend—I think the most promising approach is increasing alternative protein R&D (GFI.org is working on this).
Great analysis, Hauke! Strongly upvoted.
One note. Higher real GDP per capita is associated with greater human welfare as you point out, but I think the impact on animal welfare is unclear due to the meat eater problem. I believe boosting economic growth leads to more animal suffering nearterm, as there is a correlation between meat supply per capita and real GDP per capita:
I suspect boosting economic growth decreases animal suffering longterm via making it peak earlier, and therefore decrease faster. Relatedly, many countries have decoupled economic growth from CO2 emissions.
However, I think greater economic growth would lead to a greater relative decrease in the cost-effectiveness of human welfare interventions than in that of animal welfare interventions. Humans currently prioritise human welfare over animal welfare, so increases in purchasing power are mostly spent on human welfare, which makes them become relatively less neglected. In any case, this does not affect my prioritisation much, as I already consider the best animal welfare interventions to be 1.44 k times as cost-effective as GiveWell’s top charities.
Excellent point- I do cite the article from Our World in Data “Meat consumption tends to rise as we get richer”, that includes the figure you pasted.
I agree that we should try to decouple this trend—I think the most promising approach is increasing alternative protein R&D (GFI.org is working on this).