2 ms·
Jason Trigg actually sounds like a good guy and I applaud him for his choice. My disagreeing is with the idea of ethical-corporate-whorism being a viable way to
by ivan_ah 13y ago
Jason Trigg actually sounds like a good guy and I applaud him for his choice. My disagreeing is with the idea of ethical-corporate-whorism being a viable way to do good in the world---the "new trend" the article purports to have discovered.
Let's assume for the moment that donating 50k/y led to some tangible benefits for humanity. Were there any human costs as well? Were people actively harmed for him to obtain the 100k/y salary?
The chain of implications between actual harm being done on the ground (say in a 3rd world country) and Jason's day to day job is very long and whitewashed by buzzwords, but it is still there:
Company X1 deals with gov. of country Y to rob people of a water resource (buzzword: privatization)
Company X2 owns X1 stock (buzzword: market)
Company X3 trades in X2 stock
Company X4 makes high-freq deals for X3 (buzzword: fluidity)
So the people have no water, but nobody is responsible!
Meanwhile a new charity forms: let's give money so that the people of Y can have drinking water.
- barry-cotter 13y agoI'm glad to engage in this discussion with you but I'm not the best person to do it. My personal response would be to look at the marginal impact Jason Trigg is making, i.e. what is different about the world because of what he did or did not do. If he didn't take that HFT job someone elsse would have, and the overwhelming likelihood is that that person would not have saved twenty lives through their donations. Now, government or political activism may be the best way for some people to do the most good. This is actually an active subject of research and discussion in the effective altruism movement. If you want to discuss this topic with people who know and care more about than me this guy's posts are mostly about effective altruism/efficient philanthrophy. http://lesswrong.com/user/JonahSinick/submitted/ http://lesswrong.com/user/JonahSinick/submitted/ Most of the background assumptions the people involved in this movement agree upon are in these two posts. lesswrong.com/lw/65/money_the_unit_of_caring http://lesswrong.com/lw/6z/purchase_fuzzies_and_utilons_separately/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/6z/purchase_fuzzies_and_utilons_sepa...