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Make-A-Wish Foundation Turns San Francisco Into Gotham for 5-Year-Old Batkid

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Re: Make-A-Wish Foundation Turns San Francisco Into Gotham for 5-Year-Old Batkid

#31

Post by cududa »

frank_boyd wrote: post #17

It's nice to help suffering people. The recurring pattern I see, however, is: We single out 0.001% of all cases, do something extraordinary, and make a big fuss about it in the media. All this to make us feel good about ourselves. What we don't want to fix though, are the real causes of the problems, because that's way less pleasant to do.

What are you talking about?

"What we don't want to fix though, are the real causes of the problems"

I'm pretty sure a crap ton of people are working on solving "the problem" aka cancer. The world is filled with shitty things, can't people create the occasional extraordinary experience/ scenario just to make people feel good?

Re: Make-A-Wish Foundation Turns San Francisco Into Gotham for 5-Year-Old Batkid

#32

Post by misnome »

jaredsohn wrote: post #30
codezero wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that's true then: awesome.

Stating the obvious: it is not true, since fictional characters cannot pay for things in the real world. From some Googling, a WSJ story says about the police: "It just cost us our time. We told the guys prior that they were not going to make overtime, the ones who chose to hang around it was more of having your heart in the right place. Obviously it was necessary to put police resources into it, that happens all ove…

Isn't the whole economy about fictional money paying for real money?

Re: Make-A-Wish Foundation Turns San Francisco Into Gotham for 5-Year-Old Batkid

#33

Post by dbaupp »

tn13 wrote: post #26
mark_integerdsv wrote: post #16

I really felt some strong emotions while reading through this. It's amazing. The news spot just has to the the cherry on top. So happy for this kid that he had an awesome day. It does restore some faith in humanity to see things like this. ...however... I hate myself for being the contrarian in this case but as a South African and having worked with one or two NGOs that work with sick people in general, including kid…

Whenever I meet someone who asks for donations in the name of sick kids I politely refuse. I am always skeptical as to where that money actually goes. But when I read this report I am willing to donate more money to this organization. The story is not just heartwarming it has served number of purposes. I got to know more about the disease, the organizations involved and most importantly it has motivated me to give mo…

> But when I read this report I am willing to donate more money to this organization.

At the risk of being overly cynical, and putting words into mark_integerdsv's mouth, I believe that's almost exactly what he's arguing against. Make-a-wish spends $7.5k on each wish on average[1]. Whereas something like Schistosomiasis Control Initiative per-child cost is $5[2]. That is, the money spent "granting wishes" could perform much more good elsewhere, and so by donating to Make-a-Wish one is buying "fuzzies"[3], not being optimally philanthropic.

[1]: http://wish.org/content/faq#How-much-does-granting-a-wish-co...

[2]: http://www.givewell.org/international/top-charities/schistos... , the $5 figure comes from http://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities

[3]: Word adopted from http://lesswrong.com/lw/6z/purchase_fuzzies_and_utilons_sepa... , meaning "warm fuzzy feelings of 'doing good'"

Re: Make-A-Wish Foundation Turns San Francisco Into Gotham for 5-Year-Old Batkid

#34

Post by jaredsohn »

misnome wrote: post #32
jaredsohn wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stating the obvious: it is not true, since fictional characters cannot pay for things in the real world. From some Googling, a WSJ story says about the police: "It just cost us our time. We told the guys prior that they were not going to make overtime, the ones who chose to hang around it was more of having your heart in the right place. Obviously it was necessary to put police resources into it, that happens all ove…

Isn't the whole economy about fictional money paying for real money?

The GP says fictional _characters_.

Re: Make-A-Wish Foundation Turns San Francisco Into Gotham for 5-Year-Old Batkid

#35

Post by hershel »

cududa wrote: post #31
frank_boyd wrote: post #17

It's nice to help suffering people. The recurring pattern I see, however, is: We single out 0.001% of all cases, do something extraordinary, and make a big fuss about it in the media. All this to make us feel good about ourselves. What we don't want to fix though, are the real causes of the problems, because that's way less pleasant to do.

What are you talking about? "What we don't want to fix though, are the real causes of the problems" I'm pretty sure a crap ton of people are working on solving "the problem" aka cancer. The world is filled with shitty things, can't people create the occasional extraordinary experience/ scenario just to make people feel good?

If you look at statistics for access for cancer care for people with low income, you'll probably find enough places to put this money and effort into with better impact.

But that's boring.

Re: Make-A-Wish Foundation Turns San Francisco Into Gotham for 5-Year-Old Batkid

#36

Post by rschmitty »

aaron695 wrote: post #21

Sigh. Since when did HN become Upworthy and the glurge that went with it. A child life is probably worth less than $1000, rather than that new TV I can assure you the money to an average charity will save a childs life. Yet throw in Batman and a whole lot of Redditors and we've saved the world. Hey it's better than a normal street parade / pissing it up at a pub. But lets get a grip on reality.

If this angers you so much perhaps you should organize with other like-minded readers and do something about it?

Re: Make-A-Wish Foundation Turns San Francisco Into Gotham for 5-Year-Old Batkid

#37

Post by [deleted] »

cwilson wrote: post #27
mark_integerdsv wrote: post #16

I really felt some strong emotions while reading through this. It's amazing. The news spot just has to the the cherry on top. So happy for this kid that he had an awesome day. It does restore some faith in humanity to see things like this. ...however... I hate myself for being the contrarian in this case but as a South African and having worked with one or two NGOs that work with sick people in general, including kid…

The money that went into this endeavor was nothing compared to the compassion and outreach completely fed by the people of this city. All of the media and news you see is a result of grass roots movements, social media, and general kindness. Not some corporate sponsor. My point is, this is hands down an act of kindness by an entire city. There isn't an evil plot behind it. This makes me very happy, and it should make…

[deleted]

Re: Make-A-Wish Foundation Turns San Francisco Into Gotham for 5-Year-Old Batkid

#38

Post by hershel »

derefr wrote: post #19
mark_integerdsv wrote: post #16

I really felt some strong emotions while reading through this. It's amazing. The news spot just has to the the cherry on top. So happy for this kid that he had an awesome day. It does restore some faith in humanity to see things like this. ...however... I hate myself for being the contrarian in this case but as a South African and having worked with one or two NGOs that work with sick people in general, including kid…

Here's a lens that might be helpful to view this through: seeing these kinds of personal, touching results encourages philanthropy--we're "spending money to make money," so to speak. We just need to channel that generated emotion and desire-to-help through the cold, calculating hands of organizations like GiveWell. :)

Another interpretation could be: "we did out part, we helped batkid. No need to donate/volunteer/etc"

There's a similar thing called in internet activism , where people who upvote/like and comment don't go and be really politically active, in a politically meaningful way.

Re: Make-A-Wish Foundation Turns San Francisco Into Gotham for 5-Year-Old Batkid

#39

Post by timr »

cwilson wrote: post #27
mark_integerdsv wrote: post #16

I really felt some strong emotions while reading through this. It's amazing. The news spot just has to the the cherry on top. So happy for this kid that he had an awesome day. It does restore some faith in humanity to see things like this. ...however... I hate myself for being the contrarian in this case but as a South African and having worked with one or two NGOs that work with sick people in general, including kid…

The money that went into this endeavor was nothing compared to the compassion and outreach completely fed by the people of this city. All of the media and news you see is a result of grass roots movements, social media, and general kindness. Not some corporate sponsor. My point is, this is hands down an act of kindness by an entire city. There isn't an evil plot behind it. This makes me very happy, and it should make…

Intentions of kindness, sure. Grass roots movements, perhaps. But also more than a little wasteful. All of these things can be true at the same time.

I'm happy for the kid, but I wish a fraction of the human effort directed into this one sweeping act of altruism could be put to more productive ends.

Re: Make-A-Wish Foundation Turns San Francisco Into Gotham for 5-Year-Old Batkid

#40

Post by garg »

[deleted] wrote: post #37
cwilson wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The money that went into this endeavor was nothing compared to the compassion and outreach completely fed by the people of this city. All of the media and news you see is a result of grass roots movements, social media, and general kindness. Not some corporate sponsor. My point is, this is hands down an act of kindness by an entire city. There isn't an evil plot behind it. This makes me very happy, and it should make…

[deleted]

Are you depressed and feeling cynical? Why judge the sincerity of the people involved?

Events like these increase the intangible wealth of a society. Maybe events like these help decrease the fakeness from a society by giving them something positive to focus on instead of the drudgery that is their lives.

This has even brought attention to the disease the child is suffering from probably prompting some to donate.

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