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E_Ransom comments on Open thread, Sept. 1-7, 2014 - Less Wrong Discussion
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I care about (read: have vested interest in) people that can influence my wellbeing and choices. Because all human beings have the potential to do this, I have care about them to some degree, great or small. Because I cannot physically empathize with seven billion humans at once on an equal or appropriate level, I use a general altruistic axiom to determine how to act towards people I do not have the resources to physically care about.
That's my reason, at least, for having an altruistic axiom, explained in a terribly simple manner. I'm sure there are other, better explainations for working off altruistic axioms. I'm not making a case for the axiom, just explaining what I see as my reasons for having it.
This thing is turning into a tautology. I care about people to the degree that they are useful to me. My friends and family are incredibly useful in the great state of mind they put me in. A person living in extreme poverty I have never met, not so much. They could be useful were they highly educated and had access to sufficient capital to leverage their knowledge complementary to my skills, but the initial investment far exceeds the potential gain.
What irks me is not the statement above but the tradeoff being made in utilitarianism: That the pain of other people should count as much as my pain. It simply does not.