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ArisKatsaris comments on MIRI's 2013 Summer Matching Challenge - Less Wrong
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Putting yourself in debt for such a purpose is bad policy.
The "doubling" is a donation drive tactic. It happens every six months or so, and it has an upper limit. Nobody should put themselves in debt in order to donate.
I think that's his point: Precommitting to donate $X per month regardless of your personal circumstances is equivalent to taking out a loan that can be paid off at $X per month and donating the proceeds of the loan. The latter course of action is self-evidently bad; the donation of $X per month is bad for the same reasons.
On the other hand, perhaps my sarcasm detector is miscalibrated and he really means it, in which case yeah, taking out a loan to donate is stupid.
I indeed find the two cost-equivalent, I did not doubt that there are people who can precommit to donating monthly, and I figured that if someone precommits, he might as well borrow to increase efficiency. Yes, if loaning is bad, precommiting is of course bad too.
I did not realize that these things happen halfyearly. With that in mind, everyone who donates monthly should stop that, and instead save up money to donate on the next doubling. (Are the $200000 caps usually reached?)
Look, perhaps you should consider that you're not in the best possible position to offer suggestions on the topic, given your lack of information on the topic.
For example, I remember (I don't have a link handy, alas) someone from MIRI saying that monthly donations are better for them, since they're a more reliable source of money that allows them to plan ahead to some extent.
Then why are the major donors rewarding sixmonthly payments?
What sources of information on the topic would you recommend?
I'm guessing it's because they feel it increases donations among the people who don't monthly-donate.
When in doubt about what policy is best, then perhaps ask what the beneficiaries themselves think is best policy? They have probably thought about it longer than you.
Then shouldn't they run the doublings in different areas/communities each month so as to normalize the resulting donations across time?
I think I'll stop answering questions. I don't see why you're interested in my guesswork, rather than asking such questions to MIRI itself who could answer them more definitively.
Can you suggest a place to ask such questions publically?