Datapoint: Before the 2016 election, the Koch brothers set a specific budget for their intended spending; this would allow for something potentially similar, with Democratic mega-donors claiming to donate less if the Koch brothers lowered their intended spending. I tried to contact the Koch brothers and a number of Democratic donors, but received no replies. Uptake outside EA may be difficult.
Inside EA, there’s likely to be a big imbalance, with far more Democrats than Republicans- do you have plans to recruit outside Republicans in particular?
[Likely not a crux]
EA often uses an Importance—Neglectedness—Tractability framework for cause prioritization. I would expect things producing progress to be somewhat less neglected than working on XR; it is still somewhat possible to capture some of the benefits.
We do indeed see vast amounts of time and money being spent on research and development, in comparison to the amount being spent on XR concerns. Possibly you’d prefer to compare with PS itself, rather than with all R&D? (a) I’m not sure how justified that is; (b) it still feels to me like it ought to be possible to capture some of the benefits from many of PS’s proposed changes; (c) my weak impression is that PS (or things similar to PS- meta-improvements to progress) is still less neglected, and in particular that lots of people who don’t explicitly identify as being part of PS are still working on related concerns.