It seems reasonable to hope that a well selected charity will direct help to people who are in distinctly more need than average
There are two factors here: how much he values the utility of a family member compared to the utility of someone else, and how much utility a given amount of money can produce for his family compared to someone else. The person helped by the charity is non-random with respect to the second factor, but random (in the not-special sense) with respect to the first.
Oh, I see. … Although, actually, it might be non-random w.r.t. the first factor too. (But probably in the “wrong” direction: that is, I guess that most people care more about a given person’s utility when that person is (a) near them and (b) like them, and when the person in question is an affluent Westerner these probably both anticorrelate with being among the world’s neediest.)
There are two factors here: how much he values the utility of a family member compared to the utility of someone else, and how much utility a given amount of money can produce for his family compared to someone else. The person helped by the charity is non-random with respect to the second factor, but random (in the not-special sense) with respect to the first.
Oh, I see. … Although, actually, it might be non-random w.r.t. the first factor too. (But probably in the “wrong” direction: that is, I guess that most people care more about a given person’s utility when that person is (a) near them and (b) like them, and when the person in question is an affluent Westerner these probably both anticorrelate with being among the world’s neediest.)