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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   19511 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 7, 2026

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An awful lot of ea people argue that not giving money now is better if they can leverage it into obscene wealth and donate more in the future. The thing is, you can continue justifying not giving using that equation unto perpetuity.

It's a cool trick.

Chadakin: I don’t donate any money now in case I can leverage it into obscene wealth

Padme: Because then you can donate even more in the future to save African lives, right?

Chadakin: …

Padme: Because then you can donate even more in the future to save African lives… right?

Secretly based. Economic development has done far more for the people of Africa than all charity, probably by multiple orders of magnitude. The tycoons should focus on what they are good at instead of blowing it on conscious-assuaging causes in distant places.

It turns out you can just keep growing GDP and helping people without giving your money to grifters along the way.

I'll go further and say we'd be better off as a society with fewer charitable donations. Billionaire deaths and divorces have been a disaster for the human race. The unprecedented cash bazooka that is about to hit SF will be even worse.

Maybe this time the billionaires will something good with their charity. But I doubt it.

Seems similar to Christ talking about the Pharisees declaring their wealth as "Corban" (ostensibly dedicated to some future contribution to the temple) to avoid having to use it to support their parents in need.

I hadn't considered that comparison before. It's funnier than it should be.

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