3 ms·

> Is gaining power the most efficient way for a trustworthy and ethically constrained person to improve society? I don't know, I doubt anybody really knows. I

> Is gaining power the most efficient way for a trustworthy and ethically constrained person to improve society? I don't know, I doubt anybody really knows. I suspect it would highly depend on the individual and the circumstance they find themselves in. Either way people do things that are not "the most efficient" all the time in all areas of their lives. > Keep in mind that if you answer that question "yes", you need to believe that attempting to gain power and use it ethically and responsibly is more effective at helping people than trying to earn a bunch of money and throwing it at GiveWell's top charities[1], after adjusting for chance of success, which is a pretty high bar to clear. I don't answer yes. I think a lot of charity work has pretty dismal results in improving society at a large scale to be honest, but that's another story. In any case it's quite possible to do both. Most political offices come with a salary.

JoshuaDavid 5y ago
> I don't answer yes. I think a lot of charity work has pretty dismal results in improving society at a large scale to be honest, but that's another story. In any case it's quite possible to do both. Most political offices come with a salary. I find it unlikely that attempting to optimize somewhat for both effective charitable contributions and climbing the political ladder is likely to result in better outcomes than focusing your full attention on either goal individually. (Also r.e. charity work frequently having dismal results, that is why I specified "givewell's top picks" not "The Foundation for Curing Rare Cancers in Cute Puppies"). I do think that there probably are cases where your best bet for causing the change you want to see is going into politics, but I don't think that politics are high enough value that just being a generically ethical person trying to climb the ladder will have a sufficient positive impact to make it a better course of action than the alternatives. Maybe I'm overestimating the difficulty of climbing that ladder though, or underestimating the potential for change.
- throwawaylinux 5y ago
  I really don't know what you're trying to say or how it addresses what I wrote. It's not some big gotcha that, in your opinion, society could more efficiently be improved one way and not the other. A trustworthy person might want to run for political office because they want to improve society with the power of that ofice. This is not up for debate. Certainly not by asking weird rhetorical questions. If you really want to argue the point then cough up a complete and coherent argument.

JoshuaDavid 5y ago

> I don't answer yes. I think a lot of charity work has pretty dismal results in improving society at a large scale to be honest, but that's another story. In any case it's quite possible to do both. Most political offices come with a salary. I find it unlikely that attempting to optimize somewhat for both effective charitable contributions and climbing the political ladder is likely to result in better outcomes than focusing your full attention on either goal individually. (Also r.e. charity work frequently having dismal results, that is why I specified "givewell's top picks" not "The Foundation for Curing Rare Cancers in Cute Puppies"). I do think that there probably are cases where your best bet for causing the change you want to see is going into politics, but I don't think that politics are high enough value that just being a generically ethical person trying to climb the ladder will have a sufficient positive impact to make it a better course of action than the alternatives. Maybe I'm overestimating the difficulty of climbing that ladder though, or underestimating the potential for change.

throwawaylinux 5y ago
I really don't know what you're trying to say or how it addresses what I wrote. It's not some big gotcha that, in your opinion, society could more efficiently be improved one way and not the other. A trustworthy person might want to run for political office because they want to improve society with the power of that ofice. This is not up for debate. Certainly not by asking weird rhetorical questions. If you really want to argue the point then cough up a complete and coherent argument.