> As an aside, I think people don't fully consider the effectiveness of earning more money as a form of altruism. Since around 30% will be taken by the government, and used to fund various social services, the choice to earn more money is really the choice to earn money and donate 30%.
I'm super sympathetic to this idea, but I think generally there are even more effective places to donate extra earnings than the government! For one thing, a lot of government programs aren't very efficient for various political reasons. For another, even the worst-off people in the US are largely better off than the people that you could help by giving to organizations that work abroad. (Personally, I'm a fan of GiveWell's[1] approach to finding the most effective places to give.) But I agree that trying to earn money in order to fund this sort of thing is an under-appreciated idea, and in fact exactly what I'm trying to do :)
I'm super sympathetic to this idea, but I think generally there are even more effective places to donate extra earnings than the government! For one thing, a lot of government programs aren't very efficient for various political reasons. For another, even the worst-off people in the US are largely better off than the people that you could help by giving to organizations that work abroad. (Personally, I'm a fan of GiveWell's[1] approach to finding the most effective places to give.) But I agree that trying to earn money in order to fund this sort of thing is an under-appreciated idea, and in fact exactly what I'm trying to do :)
[1]:http://www.givewell.org/