How To Make A Difference: Effective Altruism
Doing Good Better by William MacAskill will change how you view money and the charities you support. Every one of us has “the power to save dozens or hundreds of lives, or to significantly improve the welfare of thousands of people” and William shows you how. He is one of the leaders of Effective Altruism, a philosophy and social movement that uses data and scientific reasoning to determine the most effective ways to improve the world. William has concluded that one additional unit of income for people in the developed world can do a hundred times as much to the benefit of the extreme poor as it can to benefit you or I (it’s a “buy one, get ninety-nine free” sale). Want to know one of the most effective donations you can give? Deworming. 600 million children suffer from worm infections and he (and others, like MIT) have concluded that deworming tablets are one of the cheapest and most effective things you can do for both education and health. Because it helps kids stay in school, it’s actually found to be more effective for education than providing textbooks and teachers. Children can be cured with a pill and the total cost ends up being $0.50 – $0.80 per child. Deworm the World Initiative is the leading organization for this. If you want to be more analytical about the charities you support, check out Give Well.
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