EA has growing communities in low and middle-income countries. Off the top of my head: Philippines, Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya.
This is very good. It also means that EA orgs and communicators should move away from "western-by-default" messaging and thinking[1].
Here's an instance of how assuming readers are all western can lead to wrong, or at least incompletely thought-through, conclusions.
EA thinking tends to lead people in the US/UK away from being doctors. I've heard "don't be a doctor if you care about people" used as a shorthand for the at-first-counterintuitive recommendations EA can sometimes give.
But, in poorer countries, it might be reasonable on EA grounds to be a doctor:
- There is a shortage of doctors in countries like Kenya -> higher direct impact
- Earning opportunities are much lower -> lower impact through counterfactual options [2]
It may be that it still nets out that being a doctor is not the best career choice for people in poorer countries. Seems pretty uncertain, because I don’t think anyone has thought about it in detail. In the 80k hours post, the top-level recommendation "people likely to succeed at medical school admission could have a greater impact outside medicine" is only backed up with evidence from US/UK.
Takeaway: As EA attracts people from all over the world, we need to move away from “western-by-default” communications to ensure people get the correct, and correctly-reasoned, advice.
- ^
In many circumstances it will still make sense to focus on a western audience for different types of communication. But this should be a decision based on the specifics of what you're communicating, not an unthinking default based on "all EAs are western"
- ^
Quick back of the envelope on this based on stats from an 80k interview with Gregory Lewis:
- Assume that over a UK career, a doctor saves saves 6 lives. You could do the same by donating ~$30k (assuming $5k per life saved)
- He says it could be 10x in a developing country (here he says it could be more like 40-50x). This would require donating $300k to offset
- A very very good job in Kenya would be earning $50k / year. Someone making that much and donating 10% would not donate $300k over their lifetime (unless they worked for 60 years)
- -> being a doctor looks pretty reasonable for someone in Kenya, relative to earning to give
I totally agree. The "western-by-default" messaging that sometimes occurs in EA spaces not only hurts the efficiency of the movement, but also likely turns some people off who otherwise would have joined the community. If EA is truly about viewing all of humanity as equal, then we need to make sure our communication addresses all of humanity equally, not just westerners.
And I'd note that there are lots of EAs outside of the west. I've spoken to EAs in the Phillipines, Brazil, Russia... It would be great if we could support them in building EA-linked institutions that are specific to the opportunities and challenges they face.