Yes, that is the charity argument. Yes, you should not give money both to a local candidate and to a national candidate simultaneously.
But the political environment changes so much from election to election, it is not clear you should give money to the same candidate or the same single-issue group every cycle.
Moreover, the personal environment changes much more rapidly, and I do not agree with the hypothesis that success at convincing people depends linearly with effort. In particular, changing the subject to the more important issue is rarely worth the opportunity cost and may well have the wrong effect on opinion. If effort toward the less important issue is going to wear out your ability to exert effort for the more important issue an hour from now, then effort may be somewhat fungible. But effort is nowhere near as fungible as money, the topic of the charity argument.
Yes, that is the charity argument. Yes, you should not give money both to a local candidate and to a national candidate simultaneously.
But the political environment changes so much from election to election, it is not clear you should give money to the same candidate or the same single-issue group every cycle.
Moreover, the personal environment changes much more rapidly, and I do not agree with the hypothesis that success at convincing people depends linearly with effort. In particular, changing the subject to the more important issue is rarely worth the opportunity cost and may well have the wrong effect on opinion. If effort toward the less important issue is going to wear out your ability to exert effort for the more important issue an hour from now, then effort may be somewhat fungible. But effort is nowhere near as fungible as money, the topic of the charity argument.