This is a trend in effective altruism and it’s a very dangerous one for their cause. As soon as people outside the movement think that EAs are trying to spend everyone’s money on “pet causes,” it puts a distinct upper limit on the growth of the movement. Going after political targets seems really appealing because the leverage seems so high. If we could somehow install Holden Karnofsky as president it would probably improve the lives of a billion people, but there is no majority group of people that cares more about the global poor than they care about their own money.
It’s very appealing, psychologically, because big political wins have outsized importance in how you feel about yourself. When a big decision comes down (like when gay marriage was legalized by the Supreme Court) it is literally a cause for celebration. Your side won and your enemies lost. If instead you somehow got people to donate $50 million to Against Malaria Foundation, it wouldn’t be that salient.
Since you reference Robin Hanson’s idea of pulling ropes sideways, I figure I should provide a link.
A problem with supporting political groups is that the people are not the same as the idea they represent. What you want to achieve is “X”, but what you actually achieve is “giving more power to people who used X as their applause light”. That may result in more X, but it could also result in something else. Was this risk included in the calculation of the expected utility?
This is a trend in effective altruism and it’s a very dangerous one for their cause. As soon as people outside the movement think that EAs are trying to spend everyone’s money on “pet causes,” it puts a distinct upper limit on the growth of the movement. Going after political targets seems really appealing because the leverage seems so high. If we could somehow install Holden Karnofsky as president it would probably improve the lives of a billion people, but there is no majority group of people that cares more about the global poor than they care about their own money.
It’s very appealing, psychologically, because big political wins have outsized importance in how you feel about yourself. When a big decision comes down (like when gay marriage was legalized by the Supreme Court) it is literally a cause for celebration. Your side won and your enemies lost. If instead you somehow got people to donate $50 million to Against Malaria Foundation, it wouldn’t be that salient.
Since you reference Robin Hanson’s idea of pulling ropes sideways, I figure I should provide a link.
A problem with supporting political groups is that the people are not the same as the idea they represent. What you want to achieve is “X”, but what you actually achieve is “giving more power to people who used X as their applause light”. That may result in more X, but it could also result in something else. Was this risk included in the calculation of the expected utility?
“If we could somehow install Holden Karnofsky as president it would probably improve the lives of a billion people”
Amusingly, our suggestion of these two charities is entirely syndicated from a blog post put up by Holden Karnofsky himself: http://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/suggestions-individual-donors-open-philanthropy-project-staff-2016