Effective altruism and political power

Adam Zerner

I just saw that Donald Trump is running for president. Which led me to the following thought: would any of the big names in tech have a chance at being elected president of the US? Elon Musk? Sergey Brin? Jeff Bezos? Reid Hoffman? Peter Thiel? Edit: Bill Gates?

Some follow up questions/thoughts:

As far as maximizing altruistic impact goes, would it be a good idea for them to become president?
Do these people care about maximizing altruistic impact? To what extent? If so/enough, why not do it?
What other "sane" people have enough reputation in the public eye to have a chance at acquiring a lot of political power? My first thought was tech people, but I'm sure there are others. Big hedge fund managers? Ray Dalio? Or maybe some famous scientists?
What does EA have to say about acquiring political power?

Edit: hypothetically, if one of these big-name tech people were to try to gain political power, how should they go about doing so?

Some follow up questions/thoughts:

As far as maximizing altruistic impact goes, would it be a good idea for them to become president?
Do these people care about maximizing altruistic impact? To what extent? If so/enough, why not do it?
What other "sane" people have enough reputation in the public eye to have a chance at acquiring a lot of political power? My first thought was tech people, but I'm sure there are others. Big hedge fund managers? Ray Dalio? Or maybe some famous scientists?
What does EA have to say about acquiring political power?

Edit: hypothetically, if one of these big-name tech people were to try to gain political power, how should they go about doing so?

Elon Musk & Sergey Brin are atheists. Most (but not all) sane people are [EDIT: I probably should have said: most highly rational and highly effective people are atheist/agnostic]. 50% of the US will not vote for an atheist. A large proportion of the population think that hedge fund managers are evil, either because (a) they get paid too much or (b) they think markets work by forcing people to buy/sell things.

I don't mean to just shoot down your idea, but... I just don't think its going to happen in a democratic system without raising the sanity waterline a lot.

Peter Thiel is Christian, I believe.

0[anonymous]11y

According to Pew, 3.1% of the US population is atheist so if most sane people are atheists, then you are claiming at least 93.8% of the US is insane. By any reasonable definition of insane that is just wrong but I presume you meant something else. At any rate, that statement to me comes across as quite prejudiced. http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/

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Effective altruism and political power

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Effective altruism and political power

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