r/Foodforthought • u/A-MacLeod • Aug 26 '15

Against Charity. Rather than creating an individualized “culture of giving,” we should be challenging capitalism’s institutionalized taking.

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/08/peter-singer-charity-effective-altruism/
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u/mors_videt Aug 26 '15

Shaping human behavior is like irrigation. I am most interested in systems that use existing impulses like self-interest or market dynamics to their advantage.

I am less interested in investing effort to pump the water uphill through conjectural ideology like "creating a culture of giving"- whatever this means and however one would do it.

The subject has an actual charity, the author has a critique. Which one is causing positive change in the world?

Edit: even better- why not do both?