Can and should European also donate? Foreign donations are sometimes sensitive in politics.
Adrian Spierlingšø
Karma: 131
[Question] Donate Against Save Our BaĀcon Act?
What about donations? Maybe to the American Meat Producers Association?
Okay, thank you for helping fight it!
Is there anything non-US citizens living outside the US (Europe) could do about this?
Thank you for writing this! I definitely see the appeal behind the entry example of the malaria vaccine, and behind much of the abundance medical reform agenda.
But when I listen to actual abundance discussions and policy asks, they mostly donāt focus on that. Instead, they focus on housing, birth rates, and general economic growth, all in the richest countries on earth. The first-order effects of most of these are to slightly raise the quality of life for some of the most well-off beings on the entire planet. There are certainly exceptions, and there are plausible arguments that the second-order effects are very good, such as saving liberal democracies. But second-order effects are notoriously hard to evaluate, and many existing EA interventions can also claim beneficial second-order effects, in addition to their first-order effect of saving lives and reducing extreme suffering.
Not only are the benefits unclear, but there are also substantial risks. Abolishing regulation that seems pointless is all well and good until you realize that āregulation that seems pointless to most peopleā is a category that includes some of the highest moral priorities. For instance, many AI safety interventions are annoying barriers to growth, such as installing hardware-enabled mechanisms on chips or having to publish various reports and safety evaluations. In animal welfare, laws that require humane pesticides in agriculture or bird-proof glass could avoid extreme suffering for millions of animals at a trivial cost to humans.
I still tend to think abundance is net positive, but not a top priority for impartial altruists. Though, as I said, the 20% part about medicine seems great, and moving the abundance movement more in that direction could be a great opportunity for some people.
Thank you for writing and sharing this. I appreciated your previous books and have been very excited to read this ever since I learned about it. I have already begun my reading :)
Edit: I created a free audio version of the book, maybe somebody finds it useful!
Thank you for sharing this! I plan on periodically revisiting this, because these are great!
Very interesting, thank you for writing it up!
Wow, this made me laugh out loud several times :D
Great post!
Great, thank you!
Do you still accept new expressions of interest?
Just to clarify, would you take on an additional 60000 dollars worth of debt in order to donate it?
If so, I find this admirable, though I would also advise caution, since you can also have impact with your direct work, which might be more difficult if you have a lot of debt. For example, you might want to start a charity or take an unpaid internship to get started in an altruistic career. This might be harder if you have to pay off a lot of debt.
Can you also give an estimate how much more valuable you think donations right now are?
I love the spirit of altruism, and thank you for sharing your thoughts here!
Thank you, those are good points! I am now more optimistic about reducing insect farming and might even donate to that cause :)
Hi JoA,
thank you for the thoughtful reply! I think what you say about insect farming makes sense, I also like this cause area a lot. Although it looks like I am more worried than you about the indirect effects on other farming practices, like fish farming or factory farming of land animals.
And thank you for the link to the Tomasik post, he makes good points! Do you think I should change the original wording?
Most RoĀbust InĀterĀvenĀtions?
Thanks for the PSA, I didnāt have plans for this, but I might not have thought about it.
Since the submission deadline has now passed, are you still looking for collaborators?
Really? Claude seemed to think they can, just not for anything related to elections?