It's not a given that the best use of "$20k worth of time/effort" is in the kinds of labor that you, personally, can produce. Nor is it a given that, even if you make $200 an hour, that you'd be worth $200 an hour on the talking-to-a-poor-person market. For that much you could likely pay for five times as many person-hours from trained social workers! (Which is a fairly good use of the money, come to think of it- a very practical form of education.) Likewise, if you consider you're taking the role of a social worker yourself (and likely without even a degree in said work,) it's only fair to "pay" yourself what real social workers make.
But I mean, if you really want to talk yourself into buying that car, go for it I guess. :)
Point taken, but I could make the reverse point: "if you really want to talk yourself out of speaking to that scary-looking man on your block, spend some money with the Gates Foundation instead!"
I think it's fine to spend money on charities and other social causes, but my point is that many don't have the courage to face the problems they can solve without money. I think that's the best answer to Paul Buchheit's original question.
I think it's sad that the author of this blog post, and other commenters here, truly believe that by running some numbers they can prove how much their money is changing the world.
Changing the life of one person in a community can change that whole community. The world is not made of numbers, it's made of people. You have the best chance of making a big change in the world, if you focus on helping the people who live right next to you.
> Changing the life of one person in a community can change that whole community. The world is not made of numbers, it's made of people. You have the best chance of making a big change in the world, if you focus on helping the people who live right next to you.
This sounds like unsupported platitude. What about helping someone local will help the overall world more than malaria nets or vaccinations? It gives you good feelings, but it's not actually BETTER.
There may be an argument that pulling someone out of poverty in the US makes them more likely to create change in the world themselves than pulling someone out of poverty abroad, but I'd find that to be tenuous.
But I mean, if you really want to talk yourself into buying that car, go for it I guess. :)