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This (cost/benefit analysis of non-profits, mutual fund type investment vehicles for non-profits, etc. take a look at social impact bonds, Robin Hood Foundation

by freen 1y ago

This (cost/benefit analysis of non-profits, mutual fund type investment vehicles for non-profits, etc. take a look at social impact bonds, Robin Hood Foundation, etc. ) has existed for ages, and they vastly underperform us govt agencies in terms of $/outcomes for reasons that should be obvious: economies of scale. There are very few ngo agencies that outperform the us government, and usually they operate in fields/domains that the government can’t because of political risk aversion: the voting public doesn’t like drug addicts treated like humans, and vote out politicians who do. The single most effective non-profit dollar for dollar in terms of saving lives is UNICEF. It is extremely easy to say the government is mismanaged/inefficient. It’s been basically the consistent drumbeat for centuries. Yet, once “reformers/efficiency/deficit hawks” take power, they discover quite quickly (if they are keen on retaining their positions) that the current state of affairs is deeply imperfect, but perfection is impossible. What folks fail to realize is that government operates under EXTREMELY DIFFERENT CONSTRAINTS and extremely different capabilities than businesses or individuals. They have totally different goals! Turns out, predictability > efficiency. Because people can make long term investments against predictability. Inefficiency, below a certain threshold of course, gets priced in as a fixed cost, and business routes around it/operates around it.

sepositus 1y ago
> they vastly underperform us govt agencies Interesting. I'll have to dig into the data more, then. I wouldn't be surprised if they beat out NGO's dollar-for-dollar (it's expected for the government to have far more funding via taxes), but I'm more curious about the average efficacy of those dollars.
- freen 1y ago
  The key thing here, which again, is something that governments must consider but individuals and nonprofits do not is the breadth vs depth. Your gift of $10 provides 50 meals to 50 families. Well done! It did absolutely nothing for tens of millions of other families. The implications of the loss of tax revenue as a result of charitable giving is an exercise I will leave up to the reader.

by freen 1y ago

sepositus 1y ago

> they vastly underperform us govt agencies Interesting. I'll have to dig into the data more, then. I wouldn't be surprised if they beat out NGO's dollar-for-dollar (it's expected for the government to have far more funding via taxes), but I'm more curious about the average efficacy of those dollars.

freen 1y ago
The key thing here, which again, is something that governments must consider but individuals and nonprofits do not is the breadth vs depth. Your gift of $10 provides 50 meals to 50 families. Well done! It did absolutely nothing for tens of millions of other families. The implications of the loss of tax revenue as a result of charitable giving is an exercise I will leave up to the reader.