I have had this post percolating in my head for awhile, and the idea is this: effective altruism is white washing for rich people. A few months ago I started this post. And then let it lie, but now with the revelations about Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX I dug it up again.
I became fascinated with the idea of effective altruism after hearing an interview on Sam Harris’ podcast. Effective altruism is basically this concept of trying to get the most good out of charitable giving. It does this through research and data. It determines what are the most effective ways of helping others. For example, if you had $1,000,000 is it better to spend that on mosquito nets or on trying to promote a carbon tax? This lead to setting up Giving What We Can.
Effective altruism an idea that centers on three questions:
- How can we do the most good with our resources?
- How can we maximize our impact?
- How can we ‘do good’ better?
It is very reminiscent of the Copenhagen Consensus as explained in this TED talk by Bjorn Lomborg from 2005.
Effective Altruism takes this a bit further. It expands into other topics such as advocating for future generations and non-human life. It looks at existential threats. Identifying which issues are big, solvable, and neglected.
Its not that I don’t like charity, I love charity. I am an avid supporter of KIVA.org, and several other charities. Being interested in data and measurement is smart. Wanting to be effective with your money is a good thing. Give Well is a tool I have used many times to determine where I should put my charitable giving.
The issue with effective altruism is it is another platform for billionaires to white wash their dirty images. I don’t need to know who “made the pledge”. I need to know who paid their share of taxes. Many of these issues wouldn’t need charity if the billionaires paid their taxes. If there were fair laws that shared prosperity. Laws around worker compensation, worker protection & safety, universal healthcare. Laws that made food, water and shelter as human rights. When we talk about poverty, or hunger, or disease so much of it stems from the financial inequality in our societies today. Systems which, shocker, are set up and controlled by the ultra-wealthy.
For centuries the 1% have been hording their wealth. Like Smaug the dragon they sit on their ill-gotten gains and tell everyone else they “earned” it. They then start philanthropical ventures so they look less like the monsters they really are. Look at Andrew Carnegie, John D. Fockerfeller, Howard Hughes. How many lives do you think they ruined to get their fortunes? How many others crushed by their ambition? How many people exploited? There is no such thing as an ethical billionaire.
The idea of using charitable giving for white-washing is nothing new. And SBF admitted in a series of DM’s with Vox reporter Kelsey Piper what all of the altruism was just PR.
What we need to do is to start demanding these large companies pay their fair share of taxes. Pay their employees a living wage. And close the loop holes that the wealthy are using to avoid paying taxes.