The Greatest Good: What is the best charitable cause in the world? • Hacker News Board

Re: The Greatest Good: What is the best charitable cause in the world?

#71

Post by littletimmy » Sat, Jun 20, 2015, 4:12 AM UTC

merpnderp wrote: post #38

philipn wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a really common argument that people make, but I think it's missing some essential externalities. I've worked in the nonprofit space for ~7 years now, and this is the most common over-cocktails argument folks tend to make. First of all, and most importantly, most people do not give very much of their income away. And as you accumulate more money, your rate of giving tends to decrease. There are counter exampl…

How is turning boreal peat forests into palm oil plantations equal to capital extraction? Isn't it the exact opposite in that land of less value has been turned into land of more value? I think I'm missing something here.

Yes. You're missing the chapter in your economics textbook titled "externalities".

Re: The Greatest Good: What is the best charitable cause in the world?

#72

Post by egwynn » Sat, Jun 20, 2015, 4:17 AM UTC

Spooky23 wrote: post #65

Charity is about the donor as much as the recipient. Skip the pseudo-scientific horseshit and do something that matters to you. Personally, I tutor a couple of kids in math every once in awhile, donate to a couple of religious organizations, a zoo, a local social services org, and a few museums. I find it fulfilling. One of my best friends is devoted to a particular state park -- he does trail cleanup something like…

  Skip the measurement and do something real.

No. If you care whether a donation to a particular charity will be either helpful or wasteful, then you need measurement.

Re: The Greatest Good: What is the best charitable cause in the world?

#73

Post by sgentle » Sat, Jun 20, 2015, 4:19 AM UTC

Spooky23 wrote: post #65

Charity is about the donor as much as the recipient. Skip the pseudo-scientific horseshit and do something that matters to you. Personally, I tutor a couple of kids in math every once in awhile, donate to a couple of religious organizations, a zoo, a local social services org, and a few museums. I find it fulfilling. One of my best friends is devoted to a particular state park -- he does trail cleanup something like…

This is the worst kind of anti-intellectual nonsense. Do something real? What does that even mean? Are malaria nets not real to you?

Instead of waving off the serious efforts of a large group of people to figure out how to do the most good in the world as "dick measuring", I would encourage you to consider why you find the idea of comparing different forms of altruism so abhorrent that you refuse to even consider it as anything other than a source of cheap jibes.

Perhaps you consider the lives of people in your community to be more valuable than others. Perhaps you are less concerned with the good you do than how good it makes you feel. Perhaps you believe that charity is only meaningful if aligned with some higher power.

All of those would be meaningful arguments, but instead all you've given is an invective against thinking. Why? What good could that possibly do?

Re: The Greatest Good: What is the best charitable cause in the world?

#74

Post by PhasmaFelis » Sat, Jun 20, 2015, 4:38 AM UTC

Spooky23 wrote: post #65

Charity is about the donor as much as the recipient. Skip the pseudo-scientific horseshit and do something that matters to you. Personally, I tutor a couple of kids in math every once in awhile, donate to a couple of religious organizations, a zoo, a local social services org, and a few museums. I find it fulfilling. One of my best friends is devoted to a particular state park -- he does trail cleanup something like…

> Charity is about the donor as much as the recipient. Skip the pseudo-scientific horseshit and do something that matters to you.

If what matters to me is doing enough homework to feel confident in the choice I make, who are you to say that's "horseshit"? We're both trying to get out there and help people in the way that satisfies us best; you're the one making it a dick-waving contest.

Re: The Greatest Good: What is the best charitable cause in the world?

#75

Post by reddog » Sat, Jun 20, 2015, 4:48 AM UTC

Wow. This is a tough crowd. Its not enough to generously give your time and money to charity, you have to have an effective data driven approach to your giving or you suck. And if you can bill at $500 an hour, no helping out at the soup kitchen for you -- that an inefficient use of societies resources. Back to your cubicle, work some extra hours and give it to whatever causes our models say are best. Kind of a cold and sterile way to approach giving.

Re: The Greatest Good: What is the best charitable cause in the world?

#76

Post by asdf333 » Sat, Jun 20, 2015, 5:01 AM UTC

reddog wrote: post #75

Wow. This is a tough crowd. Its not enough to generously give your time and money to charity, you have to have an effective data driven approach to your giving or you suck. And if you can bill at $500 an hour, no helping out at the soup kitchen for you -- that an inefficient use of societies resources. Back to your cubicle, work some extra hours and give it to whatever causes our models say are best. Kind of a cold a…

but what if its the most impactful?

Re: The Greatest Good: What is the best charitable cause in the world?

#77

Post by jbhatab » Sat, Jun 20, 2015, 5:01 AM UTC

justinator wrote: post #18

Havoc wrote: post #4

While not directly related to the article's line of reasoning, an honourable mention goes to the Gates foundation - they're willing to take on some of the more "risky" high risk high reward projects that other charities that are accountable to the public can't risk.

My only question for the Gates Foundation is this: Didn't Mr. Gates make a vast amount of his incredible wealth using questionable and indeed: illegal business practices? There's the right place at the right time aspect of Mr. Gates' situation, but there's also bullish nature of it. Can Mr. Gates now be seen on the moral high road, simply because of the way he's redistributing the wealth he attained (again: sometimes…

Irrelevant. We're talking about what he is doing while on top. There are more than enough examples of people on top that are doing nearly nothing to better the world.

Re: The Greatest Good: What is the best charitable cause in the world?

#78

Post by hayksaakian » Sat, Jun 20, 2015, 5:17 AM UTC

reddog wrote: post #75

Wow. This is a tough crowd. Its not enough to generously give your time and money to charity, you have to have an effective data driven approach to your giving or you suck. And if you can bill at $500 an hour, no helping out at the soup kitchen for you -- that an inefficient use of societies resources. Back to your cubicle, work some extra hours and give it to whatever causes our models say are best. Kind of a cold a…

To me it seems selfish to feed 100 people by donating time at a kitchen, instead of working more hours and donating to a charity that might feed 200.

It's as if I want the personal gratification of helping a human being in person as opposed to helping N times as many equally real human beings who I will never meet.

Re: The Greatest Good: What is the best charitable cause in the world?

#79

Post by jackpirate » Sat, Jun 20, 2015, 5:25 AM UTC

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #41

duopixel wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Charity grunt work brings forward compassion, acceptance, frugality and other qualities that wouldn't arise from working in finance. If you don't see the problem up close you won't want to donate 90% of your income. Furthermore, smart people with the conviction to solve the problem and the guts to get their hands dirty eventually accomplish great things. Norman Borlaug comes to mind.

Its pretty clear that a person who would dedicate their young years to charity work, already have those qualities. I'm thinking she might have retains some fragments of that, as she worked at her real skills and donated significantly.

That's like saying: "Anyone who would want to go to the gym is already pretty fit, so they don't need to go to the gym." The emotional muscles of charity need a workout just as much as our physical muscles. If you don't exercise them, they atrophy.

Re: The Greatest Good: What is the best charitable cause in the world?

#80

Post by jodrellblank » Sat, Jun 20, 2015, 5:32 AM UTC

hayksaakian wrote: post #78

reddog wrote: post #75

Wow. This is a tough crowd. Its not enough to generously give your time and money to charity, you have to have an effective data driven approach to your giving or you suck. And if you can bill at $500 an hour, no helping out at the soup kitchen for you -- that an inefficient use of societies resources. Back to your cubicle, work some extra hours and give it to whatever causes our models say are best. Kind of a cold a…

To me it seems selfish to feed 100 people by donating time at a kitchen, instead of working more hours and donating to a charity that might feed 200. It's as if I want the personal gratification of helping a human being in person as opposed to helping N times as many equally real human beings who I will never meet.

Or, why don't you give me the money and I'll ... make sure they get it?

http://fortune.com/2015/06/03/red-cross-haiti-six-homes/

At least with the soup kitchen, you see and feel the results of your input, in real actual people helped, not fractions of a fraction of a number on a report created by a report writer dedicated to presenting an organisation in the best possible light no matter what.