You may want to apply risk aversion to your charity donation as well, but in that case, Eliezer’s advice to purchase fuzzies and utilons separately is persuasive.
That link presents a curious argument. I figure the reason most people give to charity is to affect their image—for signalling reasons. So, for example, we have Bill Gates—ex-boss one of the most unpopular IT companies ever (widely known as the evil empire) - trying to use his money to clean up his image by donating some of that money to charity. That such things result in good being done in the world is due to the entanglement of “fuzzies” and “utilons”—in the terminology of that post. If these become disentangled, surely most people would just buy the “fuzzies”—and fewer good deeds would be performed overall.
I disagree. I think that individuals such as Gates have adopted making the world a better place as a terminal or near-terminal value. I see no evidence that he is acting in anything but the best of faith. I think he is sincerely trying to direct his money wherever it will gain the most utilons for the world, not the most utilons for him.
Status-seeking charitable works look considerably different to me. They exhibit all the normal biases of people’s emotional moral compass: they’re not forward looking enough, they’re too local, they focus on things the endower and their friends enjoy or make use of, such as the arts.
You might say that the adoption of the value of doing good in the world is a status seeking behaviour. Maybe, but this is irrelevant as long as the value is to do good, rather than seem to do good. So long as the effort is in good faith, the advice to seek utilons and fuzzies separately applies.
That link presents a curious argument. I figure the reason most people give to charity is to affect their image—for signalling reasons. So, for example, we have Bill Gates—ex-boss one of the most unpopular IT companies ever (widely known as the evil empire) - trying to use his money to clean up his image by donating some of that money to charity. That such things result in good being done in the world is due to the entanglement of “fuzzies” and “utilons”—in the terminology of that post. If these become disentangled, surely most people would just buy the “fuzzies”—and fewer good deeds would be performed overall.
I disagree. I think that individuals such as Gates have adopted making the world a better place as a terminal or near-terminal value. I see no evidence that he is acting in anything but the best of faith. I think he is sincerely trying to direct his money wherever it will gain the most utilons for the world, not the most utilons for him.
Status-seeking charitable works look considerably different to me. They exhibit all the normal biases of people’s emotional moral compass: they’re not forward looking enough, they’re too local, they focus on things the endower and their friends enjoy or make use of, such as the arts.
You might say that the adoption of the value of doing good in the world is a status seeking behaviour. Maybe, but this is irrelevant as long as the value is to do good, rather than seem to do good. So long as the effort is in good faith, the advice to seek utilons and fuzzies separately applies.