I recently made my first post on the Effective Altruism forum. In the spirit of GA Cohen I ask: ‘why not socialism?’
The post begins:
It seems to me that most (perhaps all) effective altruists believe that:
- The global economy’s current mode of allocating resources is suboptimal. (Otherwise, why would effective altruism be necessary?)
- Individuals and institutions can be motivated to change their behaviour for the better on the basis of concern for others. (Otherwise, how could effective altruism be possible?)
(1) suggests that we should explore alternative ways of allocating resources. (2) suggests that alternatives involving more altruistic motivation, and less of the self-interested motivation that dominates our current mode of resource allocation, could be both feasible and superior. There is an old name for the movement and ideal associated with pursuing an economic system based on more altruistic motives: socialism. This is a prima facie case for EAs to engage with socialist thought and politics. However, I see little of this kind of engagement. In this post I ask why that might be and how I think EAs might best engage with socialism. My aim is to start a productive conversation, and all comments are welcome.
Read the whole post here.
Nikhil Venkatesh 