Most people in the western world are very wealthy by most any measure. That means we have extraordinary opportunities to change other people's lives. If you've ever walked around a poorer country, where the average person is earning a couple of dollars a day, you've probably thought about this, how a fraction of your weekly income could send a child to a good school for a year, or enable an entrepreneur to start a business. Most of us try not to think about this. But an Oxford University ethics professor named Toby Ord has thought about it a great deal.
Ord founded an organization called Giving What We Can. It includes a list of his favorite charities (he favors ones oriented toward health, relatively small investments that allow people to live much longer and more happily). The site also includes a calculator that lets you know about how much good you can do. He advocates that people earning generous salaries donate a large chunk of it--50% rather than just 10% But I plugged in 10% of $80,000 or 25 years. That amount of giving would produce an additional 3,636 years of healthy living, the equilalent of saving dozens of lives. Or you could put that money into a time share or vacation home. Which is what most of us will do.
Thanks for sharing this David. I hadn't heard of "www.givingwhatwecan.org" before. It is amazing how even small amounts like $10-20 can go to improving monthly education/health outcomes for some families. I look forward to pointing some friend to the effective giving research and resources as well as the helpful giving calculator. PS: I haven't been shopping for a time share :)
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