Mutual Aid as Effective Altruism

Kennedy Inst Ethics J. 2023;33(2):201-226. doi: 10.1353/ken.2023.a904083.ABSTRACTEffective altruism has a strategy problem. Overreliance on a strategy of donating to the most effective charities keeps us on the firefighter's treadmill, continually pursuing the next-highest quantifiable marginal gain. But on its own, this is politically shortsighted. Without any long-term framework within which these individual rescues fit together to bring about the greatest overall impact, we are almost certainly leaving a lot of value on the table. Thus, effective altruists' preferred means undercut their professed aims. Alongside the charity framework, the more effective altruist ought to consider a mutual aid framework, which better acknowledges and honors the unavoidably political commitments of effective altruism to reimagine and remake the world.PMID:38588229 | DOI:10.1353/ken.2023.a904083
Source: Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal - Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Source Type: research