Comments by "Jason Dashney" (@jasondashney) on "Peter Singer: The why and how of effective altruism" video.

  1. That is just one of many many logical lapses he talks about. Also, if you really wanna hurt the world's poor stop buying things. One dollar a day is better than zero dollars a day. It's a complex problem and his solution would only make things worse. It would mean the world's poorest would have no job at all, and there are cascading effect for retail sales back home as well. It would destroy both economies and everyone would suffer. Plus, people aren't dirt poor because they lack money. They are dirt poor because of corrupt governmental institutions, full stop. Those dirt poor nations are not helped if they never have to face a reckoning because rich Westerners keep coming in and keeping peoples heads just barely above water, just barely surviving.
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  2. This whole talk is painfully naïve about anything to do with economics or human welfare. He built his reputation on it back in the 70's through so he is digging his heels in with this nonsense that does not hold up to any form of rational scrutiny, if you explore any of these ideas individually. This is nonsense. It's good for bumper stickers and that's all.
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  3. "You might not like Singer's ideas, you might not think they're practically feasible, but you have to admit they're pretty logically consistent." Don't confuse logically consistent for being logically sound or pragmatic or realistic.
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  4. Like the rest of this whole video, the story about that boy lacked context, as you have shown. This whole talk is very low resolution, simplistic thinking that has so many plot holes in it, it may as well be a Vin Diesel movie.
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  5. Jim Rogers is a wealthy investor who spends an extraordinary amount of time travelling. He has been to more countries in the world than any other human being alive. A smart man. He goes and talks to local prostitutes because they have the pulse of what's going on because they get hired to service foreign dignitaries, etc. He thinks we should stop absolutely all foreign aid, because the vast majority of it goes in the dictators pockets, and whatever doesn't just ends up, barely keeping peoples heads above water, so they don't pull a revolution and overthrow the corrupt government. It's perpetuating the system unfortunately.
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