May 31, 2013 This generation, perhaps more liberation movement. And he is earned about $50,000 in 2011, costs about $20 per person.” managed to live on $10,000 in The group conducts charity of the $5 billion away. He could a doctor and 80,000 Hours comfortable with data than labor, reviled by right-to-life activists for that amounts to 5 percent of one’s 2012, they say. Together, they give evaluations and is a grass-roots save 3,000 times as many lives member. “I don’t know if I would Join Wall Street. Save the Which is better? GiveWell is leveraging its wealth for a better his permissive views of abortion, gross income. Arguably, a child in away at least 45 percent of their network for those trying to live in a year as Ord could save in 80 have done it if I knew what I attempts to make that calculation. end. Instead of digging wells, it’s euthanasia and infanticide. Africa gains more from not dying income each year (the rest goes to the consequentialist lifestyle. At years. So why not enter finance know now.” It uses randomized studies like paying so that more wells are dug. than an American family loses savings and taxes). Kaufman and least in Britain, the idea took off with the express goal of using world. In Trigg’s circle, Singer is those from MIT’s Jameel Poverty by making $47,500 rather than Wise meticulously document their fast, and not just with avowed earnings to save lives? An ethical endorsement “A lot of people, they want to perhaps best known for a single Action Lab to discern what kinds By Dylan Matthews $50,000 in a given year. spending on their blogs. In 2010, consequentialists and utilitarians. make a difference and end thought experiment. Through a of giving are most effective. Along with his former student It’s hard to imagine a 25-year-old for example, they spent a measly up in the Peace Corps and in simple parable, Singer makes a “Many people talk about saving a The group has been profiled Benjamin Todd, MacAskill soon Peter Singer envisioning that an One of the lab’s most famous $164.44 on groceries each month the developing world without compelling case that giving most life as one of the greatest things across Britain, in the Guardian, launched 80,000 Hours (the article he published in Philosophy findings is that handing out and gave themselves $38 apiece to running water,” Trigg says, “and of your money away is not only you can do,” says Robbie Shade, the Daily Mail and the BBC. The hours that a typical person works and Public Affairs would push ason Trigg went into finance malaria bed nets for free spend each week on nonessentials I can donate some of my time in admirable but morally obligatory. an engineer at Google who says he initial coverage focused on Ord’s in his or her life), which focuses people like Jason Trigg into the because he is after money — is a hugely effective way to (including all non-grocery meals). the office and make more of a Here’s how it goes: gives 25 percent of his earnings to promise in 2010 to give £1 million on helping people make ethical financial sector. as much as he can earn. Jeff Kaufman prevent premature death; not In 2012, they moved in with Jeff’s difference.” charity, “but seem unaware that (or $1.5 million) to charity over career decisions. To be clear, But the 66-year-old Singer of JThe 25-year-old certainly A man walking by a shallow pond coincidentally, Against Malaria family, which saved even more it is within their power to save his life, a tall order for an Oxford neither MacAskill nor Ord nor today welcomes the result. In had other career options. An MIT found GiveWell’s In many ways, his life still notices a toddler struggling in Foundation, GiveWell’s top-rated money, they say. multiple lives every year, with fellow making $50,000 a year. their organizations believe that between fending off religious computer science graduate, he resembles that of a graduate the water. No one else is around. sent to the New York City Ballet charity, does just that. little personal sacrifice.” Kaufman found GiveWell’s But somewhere along the line, what they call “earning to give” is opponents and helping lead the could be writing software for the quantitative rigor student. He lives with three Rescuing the child would ruin probably cannot. (Although it There’s also growing literature quantitative rigor attractive. Ord’s colleague and charity necessarily the best choice for all animal rights movement, he’s next tech giant. Or he might have roommates. He walks to work. his shoes and muddy his suit. Doing good, by the dollar may produce a slightly better suggesting that direct cash “We used to try to do our own co-founder Will MacAskill hit or even most people. been doing a fair bit of giving attractive. “We And he doesn’t feel in any way Tending to the girl and finding version of “Swan Lake.”) gone into academia in computing transfers — the term of art for research and have since been upon an even catchier pitch. This is Jason Trigg, a programmer deprived. “I wouldn’t know her parents would take time, The pond parable is about 40 Not everyone is cut out to spend advocacy himself. He has his own or applied math or even biology. who went to work for a hedge fund That emphasis on where a “giving poor people money” convinced that GiveWell is really At the height of the Occupy used to try to do how to spend a large amount of making him late for work. So he years old, but has mostly fallen 80,000 hours trading derivatives. group, The Life You Can Save, He could literally be working to because he gures it’s where he donation would make the — is more effective than most good,” he says. “Their values are movement in late 2011, he gave can earn the most – and thus give money,” he says. walks away. The girl drowns. on deaf ears. Philosophers They emphasize that, say, policy spun off from his book of the cure cancer. biggest difference is not typical. programs providing goods like very similar to us, and they’re a talk at Oxford titled: “Want an our own research the most away. (Photo by Gretchen have thought it preposterous work, advocacy and scientific same name, which also organizes While some of his peers have Singer first told this story in his Traditional evaluators like food or housing; GiveDirectly, very thorough.” ethical career? Become a banker.” Instead, he goes to work each Ertl/For The Washington Post) for the scale of demands it research are other careers that at universities and works as an shunned Wall Street as the 1972 paper “Famine, Affluence, Charity Navigator are agnostic GiveWell’s No. 2 charity, is morning for a high-frequency and have since places on normal people. MacAskill, like Trigg, realized could save a large number of lives. informal ally of Giving What We land of the morally bankrupt, and Morality,” and it is among the as to a charity’s purpose and basically a hyper-efficient Going where the money is trading firm. It’s a hedge fund on Malaria Foundation, considered And non-philosophers barely that percentages don’t matter. Indeed, Ord and MacAskill plan Can and 80,000 Hours. steroids. He writes software that Trigg’s moral code steered him most famous in modern ethics. registered that giving could be instead make sure it’s not actively mechanism (with only 8 percent If GiveWell makes the empirical been convinced one of the world’s most effective Absolutes do. Ord may be able to to keep up their advocacy rather And he embraces earning-to-give turns a lot of money into even there. And he’s not alone. To To Singer, the lesson is this: “If morally obligatory at all. fraudulent or administratively overhead and two employees) for argument to the public, Giving charities. It estimates that a give $1.5 million over the course than earning to give. “I don’t as among the most ethical more money. For his labors, he an emerging class of young it is within our power to prevent bloated. They don’t calculate sending cash to poor families in What We Can makes the moral that GiveWell is $2,500 donation can save one Two former analysts at the of his life, but Goldman Sachs think I should work in the City” — career choices one can make, reaps an uptown salary — and professionals in America and something bad from happening, which contributions have the Kenya. one. life. A quantitative analyst at mega-hedge fund Bridgewater chief executive Lloyd Blankfein London’s Wall Street — “since I more moral than his own, even. Britain, making gobs of money is without thereby sacrificing most bang for the buck. over time his earning potential really good,” he Trigg’s hedge fund can earn well GiveWell seeks to highlight made more than $15 million in can influence people,” MacAskill the surest way to save the world. anything of comparable moral Associates have worked to change Toby Ord, the founder, is an “There is a relatively small group is unbounded. It’s all part of the more than $100,000 a year. By “You can pay to provide and train a type of philanthropy that is 2012 alone.