https://www.slowboring.com/p/cash-transfers-work
"Giving Tuesday has been around for a little over 10 years, and according to
the official website “whether it’s making someone smile, helping a neighbor or
stranger out, showing up for an issue or people we care about, or giving some
of what we have to those who need our help, every act of generosity counts and
everyone has something to contribute toward building the better world we all
want to live in.”
That’s a nice idea! But it wouldn’t be
Slow Boring if I didn’t encourage
everyone to be a
little more analytical with their time, money, and effort.
After all, “showing up for an issue” you care about isn’t a good idea if your
actions backfire catastrophically. It’s also possible that the issue you care
about is bad on the merits. Matt Damon, Mark Ruffalo and others who are trying
to prevent a church in Manhattan from being redeveloped probably think they’re
doing the right thing, but they are, in fact, making New York City worse off.1
Supporting causes that actually make the world better — not just those that
make you feel better — is important.
I frequently tout the work of GiveWell, which I believe does the best job of
sifting through the available data to find the optimal use of charitable funds.
But I do think there’s something to the critique of charity as kind of a power
move by people with money.
Research is imperfect and hinges in part on judgments about values. And
realistically, any recommendations that I make reflect my judgments about the
actual quality of the research, as well as those of the people I have
confidence in, like the staff at GiveWell. I like to think that my judgments
about these things are good, but I’m not immune to bias. Not everyone is
willing to trust me to tell them what to do with their money, and that’s fair
enough.
But that’s what’s so powerful about GiveDirectly.
GiveDirectly operates on the simple premise that when the richest people in the
world give cash to the poorest people in the world, everyone can accomplish an
incredible amount of good."
Via
What Could Go Right? December 7, 2023:
https://theprogressnetwork.org/homelessness-2023/
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
