= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
someonewrongonthenet comments on To Inspire People to Give, Be Public About Your Giving - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (15)
No, but other LW related things (givewell, giving what we can) made me more inclined to make donations. The story of Zell Kravinsky made me more inclined to do so as well. Also, the overall discussion (not specifically your comment) causes the "charity" meme to slightly grow in size within my mind.
I would publicize my donations if I had made any. By the logic of the main post, am I doing a dis-service to norm creation by admitting to not donating?
Being a student, my net worth generally fluctuates around zero and would go negative without parental support. Which isn't an excuse at all - I could be more frugal and ask my parents to donate the difference...but for some reason it is more intuitive to first become self sufficient and then donate, rather than use methods to convince parents to donate what they might have spent on me.
I like the Giving What We Can norm of "give 10% of income when you have it and 1% of your spending money otherwise". That's 1% of whatever you have for eating out, going to the movies, etc. While 1% is small, it keeps you in the habit of giving, makes you think about where to give, and demonstrates to yourself and others that you're committed.
I suspect that asking your parents if you could be more frugal and they would donate the difference would just strain your relationship to little gain.
This is why I never tried it. When choosing which college to go to, I did ask whether going to the vastly cheaper of two options and donating the difference was an option, and was told it wasn't, and I could tell that similar suggestions along those lines wouldn't go over well. (In retrospect, it was good they kept me from doing unusual things like that, and that I'm so influenced by social norms - taking beliefs seriously while still a stupid kid in other ways is dangerous.)
I'm not sure they would accept that.