4 ms·

I think even giving 2.5% to politics is too much. The amount of impact your money will have in influencing public policy is minuscule. Even if you donated 90% i

I think even giving 2.5% to politics is too much. The amount of impact your money will have in influencing public policy is minuscule. Even if you donated 90% it would make almost no difference in a state-level political campaigns chance of success. And even assuming your preferred candidate did win, their ability to redirect the “massive resources” of government to a good causes is very small. However small amounts donated to the right charities (vaccines, mosquito nets, eye surgery, etc) can completely change peoples lives.

striking 4y ago
> In an election year estimated to cost around $14 billion, money from small donors makes up 22 percent of 2020 fundraising — up from 15 percent at this point in 2016. > In what Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has called “the most important election of our lifetime,” small donor donations already total $2.8 billion — an unprecedented high considering the impact of COVID-19 on the American wallet. > Biden has seen a high tally of these small donations from a dollars-only standpoint. At around $368 million, money from small donors makes up about 38 percent of Biden’s total. But President Donald Trump has seen a higher proportion of money raised from small donors, with 45 percent, or $268 million, of his total coming from contributions of $200 or less. From https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2020/10/small-donors-give-big-2020-thanks-to-technology/ https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2020/10/small-donors-give-b... Seems like every donation, even those under $200, counts. In a proportion and as part of helping win races. I had a visualization in mind that showed size of donations per district among other stats but I can't find it now. There are rough estimates for the "cost per vote" based on donations divided by number of votes achieved but obviously there are a number of confounding factors with analyses starting from numbers like those. As far as redirecting funds to things you believe in, I don't imagine some of the recent changes enacted by recent bills would have taken effect in any way other than getting folks to vote for someone who would help push them through, and donating money for political ads and other kinds of campaigning can often make or break a campaign (I can't think of a better recent example than how JD Vance was just given $28M for the Ohio race that ostensibly favors Republicans).
vinceguidry 4y ago
Donate as much as you feel comfortable to whatever cause you feel good contributing. But it's just wrong that political donations don't do anything. True, it's a drop in a very large bucket. But it's a bucket that has been heavily refined and engineered to have as large an electoral impact as possible by very seasoned professionals. There's another reason to donate to political campaigns. Much of the money in politics comes from corporate PACs. This money often comes with weird strings attached and doesn't really serve the public interest. Grassroots donations (to the Blue Tribe, in the Red it's likely to just go in someone's pocket) provides a counterweight to this massive influence and is very important in prioritizing politicians' platforms and agenda. If they can rely on public donations, then they can spend less time satisfying corporate donors.

striking 4y ago

> In an election year estimated to cost around $14 billion, money from small donors makes up 22 percent of 2020 fundraising — up from 15 percent at this point in 2016. > In what Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has called “the most important election of our lifetime,” small donor donations already total $2.8 billion — an unprecedented high considering the impact of COVID-19 on the American wallet. > Biden has seen a high tally of these small donations from a dollars-only standpoint. At around $368 million, money from small donors makes up about 38 percent of Biden’s total. But President Donald Trump has seen a higher proportion of money raised from small donors, with 45 percent, or $268 million, of his total coming from contributions of $200 or less. From https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2020/10/small-donors-give-big-2020-thanks-to-technology/ https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2020/10/small-donors-give-b... Seems like every donation, even those under $200, counts. In a proportion and as part of helping win races. I had a visualization in mind that showed size of donations per district among other stats but I can't find it now. There are rough estimates for the "cost per vote" based on donations divided by number of votes achieved but obviously there are a number of confounding factors with analyses starting from numbers like those. As far as redirecting funds to things you believe in, I don't imagine some of the recent changes enacted by recent bills would have taken effect in any way other than getting folks to vote for someone who would help push them through, and donating money for political ads and other kinds of campaigning can often make or break a campaign (I can't think of a better recent example than how JD Vance was just given $28M for the Ohio race that ostensibly favors Republicans).

vinceguidry 4y ago

Donate as much as you feel comfortable to whatever cause you feel good contributing. But it's just wrong that political donations don't do anything. True, it's a drop in a very large bucket. But it's a bucket that has been heavily refined and engineered to have as large an electoral impact as possible by very seasoned professionals. There's another reason to donate to political campaigns. Much of the money in politics comes from corporate PACs. This money often comes with weird strings attached and doesn't really serve the public interest. Grassroots donations (to the Blue Tribe, in the Red it's likely to just go in someone's pocket) provides a counterweight to this massive influence and is very important in prioritizing politicians' platforms and agenda. If they can rely on public donations, then they can spend less time satisfying corporate donors.