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A solution to 90% of the article is maximizing average expected utility which avoids several flaws with traditional utilitarianism. GiveDirectly is a ground-up

A solution to 90% of the article is maximizing average expected utility which avoids several flaws with traditional utilitarianism. GiveDirectly is a ground-up solution to the long-term problem of poverty. Now I get very political, but I think it's also empirically true: global capitalism is the major force for extreme poverty in this century. Cheap labor is highly desirable and economically efficient for everyone except the poor. I think one convincing piece of evidence is how many countries are in favor of free trade agreements but not free movement (immigration, emigration) agreements, except between economic peers. EDIT: The article does mention GiveDirectly but says UBI is a better solution, which is strictly true, but requires political will to implement much like changes to immigration policies whereas individual charity can have immediate benefits while political will shifts.

drivebycomment 6y ago
> global capitalism is the major force for extreme poverty in this century. On what basis are you claiming this ? All data clearly shows the extreme poverty has declined significantly in this century: https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty While the cause can be debated, it's quite clear that the global trade contributed significantly to reducing the poverty in the world.
medlyyy 6y ago
>global capitalism is the major force for extreme poverty in this century. The complete opposite. Where do you think globalised capitalism gets cheap labour from? Hint: it's not developed countries. Then to get them to work for them, they have to pay them something, and people aren't going to accept the jobs if it's not enough to live on. The empirical data also bears this out, as the other reply notes. Now, whether capitalism is a force for increasing wealth gap and relative poverty in developed countries is a different question; but the "poverty" in that case is certainly much less "extreme."
frashelaw 6y ago
Exactly. Capitalism is ultimately playing a key role in perpetuating poverty.

drivebycomment 6y ago

> global capitalism is the major force for extreme poverty in this century. On what basis are you claiming this ? All data clearly shows the extreme poverty has declined significantly in this century: https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty While the cause can be debated, it's quite clear that the global trade contributed significantly to reducing the poverty in the world.

medlyyy 6y ago

>global capitalism is the major force for extreme poverty in this century. The complete opposite. Where do you think globalised capitalism gets cheap labour from? Hint: it's not developed countries. Then to get them to work for them, they have to pay them something, and people aren't going to accept the jobs if it's not enough to live on. The empirical data also bears this out, as the other reply notes. Now, whether capitalism is a force for increasing wealth gap and relative poverty in developed countries is a different question; but the "poverty" in that case is certainly much less "extreme."

frashelaw 6y ago

Exactly. Capitalism is ultimately playing a key role in perpetuating poverty.