4 ms·
Looking it, one suggestion came up, that you should go for a career where you can earn as much as possible, because then you could gave more money away, use it
by dan00 11y ago
Looking it, one suggestion came up, that you should go for a career where
you can earn as much as possible, because then you could gave more money
away, use it for something good.
So finance came up and I'm not gonna to say, that finance is by definition
evil, but I can see quite some bad things coming out of finance, just
think about all the trading with food, which painfully increased prices
especially for the poorest people in the third world. Not to speak about
the effects of the financial crises and their reasons.
I was just quite surprised about this kind of thinking, this kind of
simplification and to think of this as the most effective kind of
altruism seems to be a bit blinded.
- Avshalom 11y ago>Looking it, one suggestion came up, that you should go for a career where you can earn as much as possible, because then you could gave more money away, use it for something good. That one comes up a lot and the fundamental problem is that nobody actually does it. People start careers with the intention of doing it but hedonistic treadmill/peer-pressure seems to wring it out of them sooner rather than later. Even ignoring, as you point out negative externalities, it's just bad advice to suggest that doing something that no one seems capable of carrying though with is a good way to affect positive change.
- dan00 11y agoYes, that's certainly a good point. What if someone really wants to go into finance, likes its money and prestige and now he might be even able, thanks to effective altruism, to appease his morally doubts.
- amelius 11y agoYou are right, the approach is probably too simplistic. But he also gave some pointers to websites that can help make a more informed choice about how to apply altruism in one's life. Also, thinking about it is of course the first step, which is what this talk helps to promote.