Eugine_Nier comments on Terminal Bias - Less Wrong

18 [deleted] 30 January 2012 09:03PM

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Comment author: [deleted] 31 January 2012 05:48:05AM *  4 points [-]

I know your position is dominant around here, but I intended to tackle it anyway. If you care about doing good, once you've handled your personal expenses, additional marginal dollars have fixed marginal utility (until you're dealing with enough money to seriously impact the global market for marginal utility).

Money utility is linear between the amounts where you're worrying about personal expenses, and the amounts where you're impacting the global market for marginal utility. That's most of the range.

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 31 January 2012 06:16:22AM 1 point [-]

The flaw in this theory is that it assumes the extra money actually gets donated.

Comment author: [deleted] 31 January 2012 06:43:59AM 0 points [-]

humph. if we are not assuming the money gets used, I'm not sure how we can apply any particular utility to it at all.

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 31 January 2012 07:10:19AM 2 points [-]

We can assume the money gets used on oneself, which is much more likely to happen in the stated scenario.