As Linch says, this is a vision for this new fund that is different than what the OP and what I think sentiment supports.
In one generous vision, we have a institution where someone can donate most of their income each year. They can trust that if their loved one gets sick, they can pull out a large fraction of the money to help, like 99.99% of humanity. It’s none of our business if they do this. It’s a feature.
There is an aesthetic among older EAs (not carpet bagging arrivistes like myself) of donating huge fractions of their income, kidneys, etc. Some of these people are in great positions—some aren’t and I’ve heard of anecdotes where early EAs can get burnt out and in difficult situations later.
If you believe the above, a 10% limit and a public announcement of both their “clawback” (and implicitly their personal situation) is really different. I would guess this thins the value of this project to the degree that it’s not worth the legal and logistical challenges which are pretty big (there’s even a mechanism design sort of challenge).
I’d think that saying who was given money would be a pretty fundamental part of transparency for this, as is the expectation that people would continue giving once whatever emergency exists is resolved. Yes, 1 year is likely too short a time frame to repay if there is a huge need, but that’s why I’d say people should be able to suggest a longer time frame. (And if someone has a huge disaster and needs cash, I’d think that they wouldn’t mind people hearing that fact quite as much.)
The use case, in my mind, is someone who is nervous about giving 25% of their income and not trying to keep 6 months of savings in case of disaster. If they did that, then something happens, they need to change their mind about some of the giving—but once they are back on their feet, they would go back to donating. However, if it’s building a way for people to later say “I want half my money back, to keep forever, now that I no longer want to do this,” I don’t think it’s worthwhile as a project.
As Linch says, this is a vision for this new fund that is different than what the OP and what I think sentiment supports.
In one generous vision, we have a institution where someone can donate most of their income each year. They can trust that if their loved one gets sick, they can pull out a large fraction of the money to help, like 99.99% of humanity. It’s none of our business if they do this. It’s a feature.
There is an aesthetic among older EAs (not carpet bagging arrivistes like myself) of donating huge fractions of their income, kidneys, etc. Some of these people are in great positions—some aren’t and I’ve heard of anecdotes where early EAs can get burnt out and in difficult situations later.
If you believe the above, a 10% limit and a public announcement of both their “clawback” (and implicitly their personal situation) is really different. I would guess this thins the value of this project to the degree that it’s not worth the legal and logistical challenges which are pretty big (there’s even a mechanism design sort of challenge).
I’d think that saying who was given money would be a pretty fundamental part of transparency for this, as is the expectation that people would continue giving once whatever emergency exists is resolved. Yes, 1 year is likely too short a time frame to repay if there is a huge need, but that’s why I’d say people should be able to suggest a longer time frame. (And if someone has a huge disaster and needs cash, I’d think that they wouldn’t mind people hearing that fact quite as much.)
The use case, in my mind, is someone who is nervous about giving 25% of their income and not trying to keep 6 months of savings in case of disaster. If they did that, then something happens, they need to change their mind about some of the giving—but once they are back on their feet, they would go back to donating. However, if it’s building a way for people to later say “I want half my money back, to keep forever, now that I no longer want to do this,” I don’t think it’s worthwhile as a project.