This is a special post for quick takes by Luke Freeman 🔸. Only they can create top-level comments. Comments here also appear on the Quick Takes page and All Posts page.
This coronavirus affects everyone, but not equally. The young often shrug off the virus; the old often die of it. The rich shrug off the economic shock; the poor cannot. Because of covid-19, the number of extremely poor people (ie, those making less than $1.90 a day) will rise by 70m-100m this year, the World Bank predicts. Using a broader measure, including those who lack basic shelter or clean water and children who go hungry, the ranks of the poor will swell by 240m-490m this year, says the un. That could reverse almost a decade of progress (see article). If a vaccine is found, economies will no doubt bounce back. But widespread vaccination will take years and the very poor cannot wait that long. By then, malnutrition will have stunted a tragic number of children’s bodies and minds.
Shower thought:
A few years ago 80K did a survey with organisations asking about what they’d forego in donations for their most recent hire. I’ve seen this used as a justification for people not donating because “EA isn’t funding constrained”. As a hiring manager (who hasn’t yet hired for all our desired roles) and someone fundraising for an EA organisation (that still has a funding gap) I think that this framing is misleading. Other relevant survey questions would be:
I’ll have to dig more into this later, but just leaving the shower thought here for now.
Shower thought:
A few years ago 80K did a survey with organisations asking about what they’d forego in donations for their most recent hire. I’ve seen this used as a justification for people not donating because “EA isn’t funding constrained”. As a hiring manager (who hasn’t yet hired for all our desired roles) and someone fundraising for an EA organisation (that still has a funding gap) I think that this framing is misleading. Other relevant survey questions would be:
I’ll have to dig more into this later, but just leaving the shower thought here for now.