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naraburns  nihil supernum  2yr ago (text post)   30738 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 21, 2022

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And yet people still donate millions to breast cancer awareness and similar rubbish. Maybe we need a movement to get people to put a bit more thought into how they donate, to make sure their money is used in the best way possible, to make their... altruism effective?

Maybe we need a movement to get people to put a bit more thought into how they donate, to make sure their money is used in the best way possible, to make their... altruism effective?

Maybe we need a single organization dedicated to charity and peace and love, who can coordinate collection of donations, provide social services, and lead outreach efforts to drum up support. It can even have local, regional, national, and supranational levels, led by a leader selected for wisdom and benevolence from a conclave of regional leaders!

Oh wait, we just reinvented the Catholic church.

The Catholic Church is much more than its social programs. Arguably, the social programs are one of the less important things it does, especially nowadays. The Church also doesn't do any research on cost effectiveness (or do you think ornate cathedrals do more good than malaria nets?).

There is no need for a centralized EA organization. Cost effectiveness research, of the kind performed by GiveWell, isn't that expensive. You could reasonably have multiple groups each doing their own analysis and outreach efforts, and these meta-charities would be separate from those that actually implement the programs. GiveWell doesn't directly help anyone as far as I know, they do the research and direct any extra money to charities they find to be effective.

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