<story><title>What’s the best way to spend $20K to help the common good?</title><url>https://80000hours.org/2015/06/whats-the-best-way-to-spend-20000-to-help-the-common-good/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>shoo</author><text>Another important aspect might be to consider how the $20k was obtained in the first place. What resources were consumed to generate that wealth? What pollution was generated? Which parts of society benefited, and which did not?&lt;p&gt;Here is a contrived example:&lt;p&gt;Suppose you obtained $20k by applying your skills as a consultant where you helped some business make an additional $200k profit by more effectively advertising their products.&lt;p&gt;Suppose that business has a profit of 20% for each item they sell, so you&amp;#x27;ve actually lifted their revenue by $1m.&lt;p&gt;Now, suppose these products are essentially useless consumer products that will go out of fashion within 1 year.&lt;p&gt;I claim without evidence that the environmental impact of producing, advertising, distributing and disposing of $1m of useless products may, in many cases, be well in excess of how much of that impact you could attempt to reverse with a $20k budget.&lt;p&gt;So, another option is to consider is that the world may be better off if you didn&amp;#x27;t earn that $20k in the first place. It very much depends on the direct and indirect effects of how you did it.&lt;p&gt;edit: I am curious if I am copping the odd down-vote because this argument is complete nonsense (in which case please help me modify my beliefs!) or simply because I mention something that is perhaps uncomfortable to reflect upon. I claim no moral high ground here.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>xixixao</author><text>Someone else will be the consultant, perhaps spending $20k on more useless products. In that case, you doing the consulting is still net positive.&lt;p&gt;Perhaps a better suggestion than not earning that $20k is to earn it by working with companies which do not produce useless products. Certainly worth considering for someone who wants to spend $20k to do good. On the other hand, perhaps they are already doing that .).</text></comment>
<story><title>What’s the best way to spend $20K to help the common good?</title><url>https://80000hours.org/2015/06/whats-the-best-way-to-spend-20000-to-help-the-common-good/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>shoo</author><text>Another important aspect might be to consider how the $20k was obtained in the first place. What resources were consumed to generate that wealth? What pollution was generated? Which parts of society benefited, and which did not?&lt;p&gt;Here is a contrived example:&lt;p&gt;Suppose you obtained $20k by applying your skills as a consultant where you helped some business make an additional $200k profit by more effectively advertising their products.&lt;p&gt;Suppose that business has a profit of 20% for each item they sell, so you&amp;#x27;ve actually lifted their revenue by $1m.&lt;p&gt;Now, suppose these products are essentially useless consumer products that will go out of fashion within 1 year.&lt;p&gt;I claim without evidence that the environmental impact of producing, advertising, distributing and disposing of $1m of useless products may, in many cases, be well in excess of how much of that impact you could attempt to reverse with a $20k budget.&lt;p&gt;So, another option is to consider is that the world may be better off if you didn&amp;#x27;t earn that $20k in the first place. It very much depends on the direct and indirect effects of how you did it.&lt;p&gt;edit: I am curious if I am copping the odd down-vote because this argument is complete nonsense (in which case please help me modify my beliefs!) or simply because I mention something that is perhaps uncomfortable to reflect upon. I claim no moral high ground here.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>newman8r</author><text>mind... blown... hah I&amp;#x27;ve definitely read things like this before but.... damn it just sounds so much like people thinking electric cars will save the world without considering where the energy is actually (not hypothetically) coming from.... then that example starts to gets recursive because electric cars are expensive, HOW did you get that extra 40k to be able to afford it? hah</text></comment>