Doing Good Better
... Effective Altruism ...
William MacAskill, Hillsboro Lib. 171.8 MACASKILL 2016
- p001 Windmill water pumps, long waits on windless days
- p008 Kremer: deworming children (pennies per treatment) increased school participation by 25%
- $100 purchases 10 years of extra school participation, increases subsequent adult income, pays for itself
p012 https://www.givewell.org/ ... $5000 per life saved
p012 https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/ Giving What W Can
- p018 Global top 1% - greater than $52K/year, top 5% $28K/year, top 10% 16K/year, top 15% $11K/year
- p023 100x multiplier - expect a dollar to benefit the poorest 100 times as much as it benefits you
- p024 Graph comparing US/India (Angus Maddison 2008), India seems approx 160 years behind at $2K GDP
- p030 James Orbinski Red Cross in Uganda, triage, let many die to maximize outcome for most
- p034 QALY quality adjusted life year
- p038 Dialysis average quality of life 56%, most people estimate average 39%
- p039 "Doubling income increases subjective well-being 5%"
- p045 Sub-Saharan Africa life expectancy 1950 36.7y, 2015 56 years
- p045 Conflict deaths 12M since 1973; smallpox was 3M per year, eradication saved 5 times more lives
- p052 Effectiveness Graph, 1 QALY: Kaposi's sarcoma $50K, Condom promotion $500, Antiretroviral therapy $200, Bed net $100
p059 2011 Sendai Earthquake: external assistance was not required. 2010 Haiti and 2008 Sichuan earthquakes far worse
- p061 $50K to train a guide dog, $100 to cure developing world person of blindness.
- p061 Cancer versus third world malaria, 60 times discrepancy.
- p065 One extra US doctor, 40 year career, 160 QALYs, 4 lives saved ... Ethiopia extra doctor, 12000 QALYs
p067 1966 38yo MD Donald Henderson WHO goal, wipe out smallpox in 10 years, last natural case 1977 in Ethiopia
p068 instigated by Viktor Zhdanov in 1958
p076 Earning to give
p080 Fukushima meltdown due to intentional dismissal of natural disasters during planning
p082 micromort
- p088 expected value from consumer or voter choice isn't "1", but close.
- p094 politics, research, and entrepreneurship highly competitive with earning to give.
- p097 US 21T CO2eq/year social cost $670 for median 2 to 4℃ , but 5% risk of 6℃ and small risk of 10℃
p103 Books for Africa vs DMI health education vs Give Directly M-Pesa direct transfer
- p108 books: no effect, DMI $360 per saved life (evidence weak), Give Directly more scalable but less effective
p122 Give Directly DMI Deworm Schistosomiasis Malaria Living Goods Iodine Global Network
- p128 Sweatshops: bad reputation, but the best alternative available in most 3rd world countries
- p131 fast transition to modern economy - the west took a century, Asian tigers took a few decades
- p132 shutdowns: laid off workers to subcontractors and prostitution
- p134 fair-trade: 1% to 10% of higher price reaches producers, lower wages for workers
p134 Fair Trade, Employment and Poverty Reduction (ftepr.org ) Report
- p136 Green living: lights less than 3% energy use, plastic bags 0.4%, greenhouse local more energy than international transport
p137 "Greens" diss offseting, book suggests Cool Earth to purchase and protect rain forest rating review
- p141 eliminating chicken and eggs removes majority of animal suffering from diet (worst conditions)
- p142 Average American diet year in animal years: 3.3 broiler chickens, 1.0 layer hens, 0.3 turkeys, 0.2 pigs, 0.1 beef cows, 0.03 dairy cows
p143 Animal Charity Evaluators promotes vegetarianism
p144 Moral Licensing
- p147 "Follow your passion" ... passions change
p151 job characteristic theory
- Independence, Sense of Completion, Variety, Feedback from Job, Contribution
p163 Earning to give
p164 App Academy wikipedia ( ... but 5% acceptance rate)
p168 David Brooks aout Jason Trigg daily activity detaches you from original commitment
- p169 Entrepreneurship: Why hasn't this problem been solved by markets, the state, philanthropy?
p171 Norman Borlaug
p173 Fields Medal indicates recipient ... "capable of accomplishing something truly important, and didn't"
- p175 Volunteering may consume valuable management capacity.
p181 Choosing a framework: scale of problem, neglectedness, tractability, personal fit
- p184 global poverty, US criminal justice reform, international labor mobility, factory farming, 2 to 4℃ climate change, catastrophic climate change
- p197 What to do?
- Establish a habit of regular giving
- Write down a plan for how you're going to incorporate effective altruism into your life
Join the effective altruism community
- Tell others about effective altruism