The Rich Have Their Own Ethics: Effective Altruism & the Crypto Crash (ft. F1nn5ter)

I really hope you enjoy this one - I worked super hard on it and tried my very best to keep things even-handed and educational! If you appreciate that effort, patreon.com/PhilosophyTube is what helps me keep making work like this!

Being a consultant at a banking conference where you didn’t get paid. That tracks. That tracks so hard, in fact for a financial institution.

I've worked for charities before, specifically animal rescue, and I've done independent charitable work and mutual aid in private. One of the realizations that hits you almost immediately is that charity is nowhere near enough, and cannot be relied upon as a solution to systemic problems. It comes down to a matter of scale, as charities can only help a small percentage of those who need it, and can't do anything to change the system that gave rise to massive inequalities in the first place. The average charity volunteer is giving everything they've got, and the vast majority of charity organizations are barely clinging to life. Unless an organization already has a ton of clout, or is corrupt like a lot of the big name charities, chances are it's struggling for survival itself. For people to act like we can just use charity to catch those who slip through the cracks is a gross misunderstanding of the scale and severity of the problems charity is meant to address.

I read a book called The Anxieties of Affluence, which was a sort-of anthropological look at the ultra wealthy families of Manhattan. Nearly all of the (mostly women) in the families struggled a great deal with how to be rich "ethically", and how to best donate to charities. But the thing is, how is a random millionaire in Manhattan supposed to know what exactly their community needs, or how their money can best be implemented? As a result, the majority of wealthy people tend to donate to their children's (probably already financially healthy) schools. The book made the conclusion that rich people should simply be taxed more, as even though the govt is not by any means a perfect means to distribute wealth effectively, it is at least ran by people who are (theoretically) democratically elected to represent their communities. I really think philanthropy is just another big smoke screen the wealthy use to avoid taxes. It's an incredibly ironic twist of fate to me that most rich people donate to their children's private schools, while public schools languish due to a lack of tax revenue from their neighborhoods. Cool!

I live on the Swinomish Reservation, where Shell had an entire train derail and spill into our watershed. I'm working now for a degree in Environmental Biology to deal with the long-term effects of this catastrophe. This video helped me a lot to understand what I'm doing and why. Thank you <3

Finally someone else referring to him by his proper title; "Grimes' Ex"

“Somewhere in a parallel universe, there’s an alternate version of me. And she doesn’t have any integrity, but she does own a house.” Damn. I love that line.

I just want to take a moment to appreciate how this information is being delivered by a person in costumes that look like they come straight out of video games.

I think there's also a question about how good and harm exists in the first place. Many disabled people, myself included, suffer because we live in a world that routinely fails to accommodate them. Alleviating disability can be helpful, but it puts the cart before the horse.

Disclaimer for gamers, EA is referring to Effective Altruism, not Electronic Arts

I love Abigail’s commitment to video games’ idea of future fashion. Belts. Belts everywhere.

I gave a similar "keynote speech" at a construction project meeting back in the 90s. I eventually left the business entirely and could not have been happier. Unfortunately I was forced to return to it and everything is worse than I could have ever imagined it becoming. I'm struggling to get out of it again in order to keep myself from going insane.

"The crypto sphere is powered by the hype about how we're all gonna make it. Sometimes that hype is pretty unrealistic." - Abigail. So generous, careful, compassionate! Other times it's a deliberate predatory lie. - me

I might have missed a line somewhere but... I'm embarrassed at how long it took me to realize EA stood for Effective Altruists rather than Electronic Arts... I was starting to go crazy.

As someone qualified in AI, I can assure you that the real danger to humanity from AI isn't that it will go rogue and disobey its masters. The real danger from AI is that it will never disobey its masters, and it will carry out their instructions without any compassion or ethical considerations, making those masters ever richer and more powerful, forever.

The problem I have with the non-identity problem is that it cancels itself. For, by NOT taking the bus (to extend the example), you have an equal-but-opposite impact on those same events in the other direction ... and, thus, an equal responsibility to THOSE children as well ... cancelling BOTH arguments with each other.

Came for F1nn5ter, stayed for the lesson

I absolutely love how this F1nn colab is just a normal philosophy tube video but F1nn is just sorta there vibing. Like bring your femboy to work day. Iconic

This woman opened the video with telling a conference full of bankers to resign and wearing, like 6 inch platforms. Abigail Thorn, you are an inspiration to us all.

I wrote an essay on altruism and egoism, the case of dogs vs blind poor people is a matter of not effective altruism, altruism is not about being effective or not, is about a matter of sacrificing something or yourself in making other individuals feel better, it's just egoism put into the formula what cancellate altruism and make it a "positive egoism" action. I wrote that like 3 years ago...