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multifoliaterose comments on Missed opportunities for doing well by doing good - Less Wrong
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I don't think that anyone who works should feel guilted into giving money to charity. Unless what you do is somehow completely selfish (substinence farming would be an example) you are creating a lot of value for other people via your work. If I try to estimate the value that I create for the world vs. what I actually get paid, I get somewhere between 5:1 and 20:1. So, no matter how selfishly I spend my money, most of my product is being enjoyed by others, and that means I am doing good. Giving away 5% of the meager fraction of my product that I actually get to keep will hurt me while barely increasing the amount of good I do.
Also, you're anchoring :-). When you say "barely increasing the amount of good that you do" you mean "barely increasing the percentage of good that you do." But a small increase in the percentage of good that you do probably amounts to a lot in absolute terms: it could make a very meaningful difference in the lives of one or more people.