As a heuristic, if a problem is suffered by wealthy people, then it’s not a good marginal use of resources.
Global poverty is an EA cause area because it’s cost-effective, because people in extreme poverty can’t buy the things they need even when they’re really important.
Factory-farmed animals are even less able to help themselves than people in extreme poverty.
I haven’t considered the issue for more than 60 seconds, but my gut impression is that there won’t be cost-effective menopause interventions because wealthy and powerful women also experience menopause, so if there are good ways to make menopause less harmful, then those ways will already be being pursued.
Rich people are visibly not investing enough in existential risk reduction, so my heuristic fails in this case.
Another related heuristic is that people are more likely to invest in immediate problems that already affect them, and less likely to invest in future problems, especially speculative future problems. Menopause is the former and existential risk is the latter.
As a heuristic, if a problem is suffered by wealthy people, then it’s not a good marginal use of resources.
Global poverty is an EA cause area because it’s cost-effective, because people in extreme poverty can’t buy the things they need even when they’re really important.
Factory-farmed animals are even less able to help themselves than people in extreme poverty.
I haven’t considered the issue for more than 60 seconds, but my gut impression is that there won’t be cost-effective menopause interventions because wealthy and powerful women also experience menopause, so if there are good ways to make menopause less harmful, then those ways will already be being pursued.
I take it you don’t support existential risk reduction then? After all, rich people will be killed along with everyone else.
Rich people are visibly not investing enough in existential risk reduction, so my heuristic fails in this case.
Another related heuristic is that people are more likely to invest in immediate problems that already affect them, and less likely to invest in future problems, especially speculative future problems. Menopause is the former and existential risk is the latter.