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Why I'm Giving 10% of my Income to Charity

2019-12-25 · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard) · Ali, Lucia · recording, 14:38 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Money and investing (also: Medicine and his doctor years) · mode: Conversation and interview · tags: His medical past, Evidence-based framing, Lesson from a book

Ali takes the Giving What We Can pledge to give 10% of his income to effective charities for life, arguing that the cost of a phone or shoes could save a child's life abroad; his friend Lucia, a junior doctor, explains effective altruism, the Against Malaria Foundation and why donating does more good than a doctor's career.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — The drowning child: why the cost of an iPhone could save a child abroad; Ali's New Year's resolution

  • ★★★ Ali argues that, as we would sacrifice new shoes or a phone to save a drowning child, we could donate the cost of an iPhone, shoes or a latte to save children abroad. — 00:00:29 · iPhone
  • ★★ Giving What We Can, Ali explains, is a charity that encourages people to pledge to donate 10% of their income every year to effective charities that save lives. — 00:00:29

00:01:08 — How Lucia came to effective altruism; the richest 3% of the world; giving makes her happier

  • ★★ Ali's friend Lucia, also a junior doctor and a friend from medical school, was the one who first introduced him to the idea of the 10% pledge. — 00:01:08
  • ★★ Lucia began thinking about giving at about eight or nine, when a school friend died of leukaemia: she would have given away all her toys and clothes to save his life. (hedged) — 00:01:37
  • ★★ Lucia: It did not sit well with Lucia that many children die of preventable causes while she would do so much for someone she cared about and nothing for someone else's loved one. — 00:02:24
  • ★ Lucia came across the effective altruism movement and got involved at university, making it part of her life. — 00:02:54
  • ★★★ Lucia says the average UK graduate starting salary of around £25,000 puts you in the richest 3% of the world, and after the 10% pledge you are still in the richest 4%. — 00:02:54
  • ★★ Lucia gives 10% partly because it makes her happier: spending that money on herself would not much improve her life, while doing good and living by her values feels fulfilling. — 00:03:29

00:03:58 — Effective charities and the Against Malaria Foundation: about £1,500 to save a life

  • ★★ Ali says those taking the pledge define an effective charity by evidence-based metrics that other people have worked out. — 00:03:58
  • ★★ Lucia: The Against Malaria Foundation distributes insecticide-treated bed nets against malaria deaths and disability, and Lucia says it has been shown to be very effective. — 00:03:58
  • ★★★ Lucia estimates that about £1,500 given to the Against Malaria Foundation is enough to save a life, though the estimates keep changing because they are complicated to work out. (hedged) — 00:04:35
  • ★ Lucia: A single Against Malaria Foundation bed net costs just a few pounds, Lucia says. — 00:05:04
  • ★ With four cameras filming the conversation, Ali notes that had he not bought one of them he could have donated that money to save a life. (playful) — 00:05:33

00:05:56 — Ali signs the Giving What We Can pledge on the website

  • ★★ As Ali reads it, the Giving What We Can pledge commits the signer, for life or until retirement, to give at least 10% of earnings to the organisations that can most effectively improve others' lives. — 00:06:18
  • ★★ Lucia: Students, who have no regular income, give around 1% of their spending money under the Giving What We Can pledge, Lucia says. — 00:06:48
  • ★ Reading the pledge page, Ali notes the Giving What We Can pledge is in no way legally binding: a voluntary commitment enforced solely by the pledger's own conscience. — 00:06:48
  • ★ Asked on the pledge form how much of his income he would have donated without Giving What We Can, Ali answers "two, maybe". (hedged) — 00:07:18

00:07:40 — Emotional and rational reasons to give

  • ★★ Ali plans to give according to GiveWell's recommendations, since GiveWell analyses the effectiveness of charities. (hedged) — 00:07:40
  • ★★★ Ali says he is not emotionally affected by many things and does not lose sleep over children dying in Africa, but rationally knows that giving is a good thing to do. — 00:07:40
  • ★★ Lucia sees two valid reasons to give: being moved by others' suffering, or working out logically that suffering is bad; she counts herself the first kind and Ali the second. — 00:08:18

00:09:17 — Books, TED talks, effective altruism and 80,000 Hours

  • ★★ Lucia recommends two books on effective giving: Peter Singer's The Life You Can Save, one of her favourites, which sums up the ethical arguments, and Doing Good Better. — 00:09:17
  • ★★ Lucia describes effective altruism as a social movement that uses reason and evidence to find the most effective ways to make the world better, and then tries to do them. — 00:09:47
  • ★★ Lucia says the Giving What We Can pledge is one part of effective altruism; another is 80,000 Hours, which helps people find the most impactful things to do with their careers. — 00:10:30

00:10:59 — How many lives a doctor saves, against donating a junior doctor's salary

  • ★★★ Lucia: Citing Gregory Lewis's research, Lucia says one doctor fewer in the NHS would make little difference: a doctor saves around six lives in a whole career. (hedged) — 00:11:21 · NHS
  • ★★ Ali reasons that healthcare is so huge and team-driven that the impact of an individual doctor is fairly minimal. (hedged) — 00:11:51
  • ★★ Lucia says public health measures such as sanitation and the social determinants of health do the most to keep people from dying. — 00:11:51
  • ★★ Lucia: The six-lives figure, Lucia adds, ignores that someone else would take a doctor's medical school place, so choosing to become a doctor has even less individual impact. — 00:12:20
  • ★★★ Lucia says donating 10% of a junior doctor's salary could save two or three lives a year, so a couple of years of giving outdoes a whole career working as a doctor. — 00:12:20
  • ★ Ali invites viewers who want to know more to read the books Lucia recommends, or to join them in taking the Giving What We Can pledge. — 00:12:49

00:13:15 — Thanks to Lucia; the pledge taken; sign-off

  • ★ Ali thanks Lucia: he doubts he would ever have come across effective giving without meeting her in the fourth year of medical school and their chats on journeys to placement. — 00:13:15
  • ★★★ After mulling it over for several years, Ali has taken the Giving What We Can pledge: he will give 10% of his income to effective charities every year for life, or until he retires. — 00:13:15

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Against Malaria Foundation · drowning child · effective altruism · Giving What We Can · Lucia

Also: People: Gregory Lewis · Peter Singer · William MacAskill

Works: Doing Good Better · The Life You Can Save

Organizations: 80,000 Hours · GiveWell · NHS

Products: iPhone

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