How much good can we do?
Thoughts about Peter Singer’s “The most good you can do”
Disclaimer: this article is a compilation of my own thoughts. It is not meant to impose my vision on others nor am I trying to pretend to be a role model for charitable giving.
Why am I writing this? Because I got inspired. Let me tell you this: I love reading. On average I read about 4 or 5 books a month — mostly fiction. I find myself especially drawn to crime novels or books recommended by Barack Obama (turns out we have the same taste). Recently, however, I decided to start reading more non-fiction.
Last week I was packing my bag for a long train journey and I was thinking about what books to take with me. A few months earlier, my boyfriend recommended me a book which had been recommended to him by a good friend. The book was called The Most Good You Can Do by Peter Singer. I grabbed the book, not thinking too much of it. 5 hours into my journey I was halfway through the book and was so inspired that I decided to take out my laptop and write an article about it. So, here it is!
In his book Singer, an influential philosopher, master of deep thinking and extraordinary clear writer describes a powerful movement known as “effective altruism”. He makes a compelling argument for effective altruism as a way of life by challenging the reader to consider how donations, career choices and everyday lifestyle decisions can have a positive impact on the world. By telling the stories of those in the effective altruism movement he provides (sometimes provocative) guidelines for living a fully ethical life.
What is Effective Altruism all about?
Effective altruism is based on a simple idea: we should do the most good that we can. Adhering to common rules like not stealing, hurting or killing is not enough for those that live in the good fortune of material comfort. People living under safe circumstances, being able to feed and clothe themselves while still having money and time to spare can do more. Those people, he argues, can live a minimally acceptable ethical life by using a substantial part of their spare resources to make the world a better place.
The definition of ‘effective altruism’ that has become the current standard is ‘a philosophy and social movement which applies evidence and reason to working out the most effective ways to improve the world’.
Singer was inspired to write the book because of the effective altruists he met. In his eyes, they are the living refutations of the cynics who say that human beings are just not capable of living as if the well-being of strangers really matters.
In short, effective altruists believe that the needs of those who are the worst-off overshadow the importance of things that we, those who are well-off, spend a lot of resources and money on.
Different ways of being an effective altruist
There are many different ways of being an effective altruist. In his book, Singer follows many of them and surprises the reader with the many different paths they chose. Here are a couple of examples of what an effective altruist might do to do good:
- Living modestly and donating a comparatively large part of their income
- Researching which charities are the most cost-effective and spreading the outcome of the research
- Choosing a career where they can earn a lot of money, not to live a more luxurious life, but to do good with the money they earn
- Giving a part of their body — blood or even an organ — to a stranger
There is no universal way of doing good which is why, in my eyes, it is even more admirable that Singer attempts to answer questions such as this one:
How does earning a lot of money and giving a lot of it away compare with becoming an aid worker for an effective charity?
I found this an especially tricky question to answer. Consider the following example:
Imagine that you are capable enough to work for an investment bank that pays you $200.000 a year. Let’s say you take this job and give away 50% of your earnings to charity every year. You could save a lot of lives while still maintaining a pretty comfortable lifestyle by all standards. At the same time, however, you would be working in a place that is also responsible for making money off of some of the suffering in the world. Because you don’t want to have any part in this you take your talent elsewhere and go to work for a charity. Even though you would still be doing good, you would be less effective when measured purely in absolute numbers. At the same time, somebody else takes your former job at the investment bank and does not donate any of their earnings. Ultimately, the total amount of money that is doing good for the world is decreasing.
Peter Singer shows many examples like this to illustrate that living an ethical life comes in many shapes and sizes. Because in the end personal happiness matters as well. Let’s say you did choose to work at that investment bank but that this job made you miserable to a point that you burned out and had to stay home. In that case, you would not be doing well and you would not be able to do any good for the world. Lose-lose.
Choosing the best way to help
We all know the feeling of getting stopped on a busy street by an aid worker and I admit that I often get stressed as soon as I see one approaching, fearing I will get guilted into giving money to every cause. So what’s the most effective way to do good?
In his book, Peter Singer introduced me to organisations that can best be described as some kind of “meta-charities”. These charities are the answer to questions like: What can I do to help the poor? Can one person’s donation really make a difference? These organisations deliver data-driven research about the cost-effectiveness of projects that reduce suffering. Singer does not argue that most charities are not doing good with the money they receive, but his research has shown that in many cases money could be used in a more effective way and therefore save more lives.
I could go on and on about the book itself, but rather than summarising it chapter by chapter I suggest you get the book and read it yourself. However, below you’ll find my attempt at describing why the book and the movement appeal so much to me.
My thoughts on Effective Altruism
I think the reason Singer’s depiction of effective altruism is so compelling to me is that it applies logic and reason. Even though I’ve never been particularly good at math, I believe that Singer provides thoroughly calculated evidence about the effectiveness of charitable giving. The book does not try to appeal to your empathy or to indoctrinate you. Instead, it leaves room for your own thoughts and offers useful insights and practical tips at the same time. Singer succeeds beautifully in breaking down complex issues into understandable pieces of information.
In my opinion, doing good means using my brain to make conscious decisions after careful consideration. Through thoughtful deliberation, I have been trying to live a minimalistic and sustainable life as much as possible. I don’t believe in a ‘30-days Vegan challenge’ or a ‘No spend November’. What I want is for my actions to have a long-lasting positive impact on the world.
To me, trying to live more ethically means trying to consume less and altering my lifestyle indefinitely. I don’t want my life to feel like a challenge with a deadline but rather a string of conscious choices to do more good.
I don’t follow a clear definition of what it means to do more good. Some examples of people in Singer’s were living ‘ethically correct’ to a point that it made them unhappy. This suggests that there’s no universal recipe for ethical life success. Singer, however, has opened my eyes to the possibility of doing more good by giving to the right charity. Making a choice has never been easier because, through the effective altruism movement, he has pushed charitable organisations to become increasingly transparent.
What does it actually mean to do the most good? How does helping the world’s poorest people compare with efforts to stop the infliction of suffering on animals, or mitigating the damage we are doing to the climate of our planet?
I really don’t have all the answers. But I believe that thinking about these things and making conscious life decisions is a good start. Singer’s book has inspired me to do more good and more importantly, to get involved in the movement. I still consider things I have already been doing, like not eating meat or not buying fast fashion an important step in the right direction. But to live a minimally acceptable ethical life I can definitely do more. (To be continued)
I started writing this article for myself but after finishing it I decided that I would like to share it in the hope of inspiring a few people — just like Peter Singer has inspired me. I’m also more than happy to talk more about this with anyone that’s interested.