William MacAskill - Caring About Future People Is Common Sense | The Daily Show

Summary

William MacAskill, a young and accomplished moral philosopher, appears on The Daily Show to discuss effective altruism—a concept that emphasizes doing the most good possible. The discussion centers around the moral obligation to future generations and the importance of prioritizing global problems such as poverty and future pandemics. MacAskill advocates for significant philanthropic efforts from wealthy individuals, while also encouraging average earners to contribute meaningfully. He believes that contributing to effective causes not only impacts the world positively but also enhances personal happiness and fulfillment. Despite challenges in convincing corporations and billionaires to act, MacAskill remains optimistic about shifting norms in philanthropy and envisions a world where effective giving becomes the new standard.

Highlights

• William MacAskill is a young philosopher passionate about improving the world through effective altruism 🧠.
• Caring for future people is as important as caring for those around us right now 🌱.
• Giving a portion of income can lead to immense satisfaction and happiness 😊.
• Billionaires are starting to commit to giving away large portions of their wealth under MacAskill's influence 💰.
• Despite slow corporate change, individuals can make a big impact through thoughtful donations 💡.

Key Takeaways

• Effective altruism is about maximizing good and making a real difference in the world 🌍.
• Caring for future generations is common sense and a moral obligation 👶.
• Even modest personal contributions can have a significant global impact when directed effectively 💪.
• Wealthy individuals have a responsibility to give more and set a higher standard for philanthropy 💸.
• Challenging corporations is difficult, but individual actions and strategic donations can drive change 🏢.

Overview

William MacAskill, a moral philosopher, appeared on The Daily Show to discuss the concept of effective altruism, a movement that seeks to use resources in ways that do the most good. MacAskill argues that it is vital to address pressing global issues by prioritizing efforts and emphasizes the moral responsibility to consider the impact on future generations. By doing so, individuals contribute not only to the welfare of future societies but also experience personal fulfillment and happiness.

MacAskill highlights the power of effective altruism by noting that even minor percentages of income can contribute significantly when used judiciously to combat major global challenges like poverty and pandemics. He appeals for more substantial commitments from the wealthy, advocating for a radical redistribution of wealth where billionaires like Bill Gates and Elon Musk are challenged to give away much of their fortunes for the greater good.

While corporations have been slow to embrace philanthropic changes, MacAskill believes that individuals can still drive significant change by supporting effective initiatives. By making informed donations to impactful causes, people can magnify their positive impact on the world substantially. This approach not only aids those in need but enriches the life of the giver, encouraging a shift towards more altruistic norms.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction The introduction features a conversation with William McCaskill, highlighting his unexpected youthful appearance and success as a philosopher. Despite humorous self-deprecation about his inability to grow a beard, McCaskill is recognized for addressing significant moral issues in society.
• 00:30 - 02:00: Field of Expertise and Effective Altruism This chapter explores the concept of effective altruism, focusing on understanding one's field of expertise. The speaker identifies as a moral philosopher who is practically oriented, emphasizing the importance of making a positive impact in the world. Effective altruism involves asking key moral questions to maximize global betterment amidst a multitude of existing problems, such as poverty and other societal issues.
• 02:00 - 03:30: Caring for Future Generations The chapter addresses how to prioritize issues for the future, emphasizing a proactive approach to the next pandemic. It raises philosophical questions about human nature and whether people are inherently good. The response suggests that humans are adaptable and capable of doing great things when inspired. It highlights examples of individuals committing to significant philanthropy, such as donating a portion of their income.
• 03:30 - 06:30: Inspiring Philanthropy and Personal Giving The chapter discusses the concept of effective altruism, emphasizing promoting causes that yield the most benefit. It highlights the power of inspiration to lead individuals to doing either good or evil, as seen throughout history. The narrative encourages motivating people to contribute financially to global and human-centric causes, illustrating how passion and ideology can impact giving positively.
• 06:30 - 11:30: Corporate Responsibility and Climate Change The chapter "Corporate Responsibility and Climate Change" delves into the ethical obligations we have towards future generations concerning environmental and climate-related issues. It emphasizes the moral duty to consider the impacts of our actions on future inhabitants of the planet. The argument highlights that just as we benefit from the actions of past generations, we have a responsibility to ensure a sustainable and livable world for those who come after us. The discussion anticipates objections from those who focus on immediate present concerns, challenging them to recognize the interconnectedness of past, present, and future actions and their impact on the collective well-being.
• 11:30 - 12:00: Conclusion The chapter discusses the moral and ethical responsibility we have towards future generations. It uses a common-sense analogy to highlight this point: if one was to drop glass on a hiking trail, the instinct should be to clean it up to prevent harm to future trail users. This analogy is used to argue that caring for future people is a fundamental aspect of human ethics and is common sense.

William MacAskill - Caring About Future People Is Common Sense | The Daily Show Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 William mccaskill Welcome to The Daily Show thanks so much for having me I'm a huge fan it's a it's interesting speaking to a philosopher because when they say philosopher I remember thinking oh it's probably gonna be like a 90 year old man with like a stick and what is the meaning of life and I can't even grow a beard I'm like I suck as a philosopher you're not you're not just young you're very successful you you know you're a professor who deals with I guess is are you dealing with some of the biggest moral issues in society help me
• 00:30 - 01:00 understand what your field of expertise actually is so I'm a little different from a normal moral philosopher because I'm a little less head in the sky clouds I want to fundamentally I want to make the world a better place okay and so I'm asking the question how can we do as much as possible to make the world better that's what effective optimism is about and so the moral questions that I'm addressing are those that we need to figure out if we want to answer that question where there are just so many problems in the world which the impoverty effectively farming chance of
• 01:00 - 01:30 the next pandemic how how do we prioritize among them if we want to do as much good as we can is it is it even possible to do that you know one of the first questions somebody may ask in response to you is are humans inherently good what would you what would you what would you say to them if they ask that question I think in response to that just humans are very malleable so people can be inspired to do amazing things terrific things again I've seen this now thousands of people committing to give at least 10 of our income often much
• 01:30 - 02:00 more to those causes that will do the most good so by promoting the idea of effective optimism I've seen many people get inspired to do good but you can also inspire people to do bad the history of the 20th century showed right the banality of evil just how people could even good people could get swayed by bad ideologies right produce horrific outcomes so let's talk a little bit about convincing people to give money to causes that will benefit the planets or humans around them in in this book you
• 02:00 - 02:30 talk about the future in a really interesting way what we owe the future your argument and correct me if I'm wrong is basically that we have a moral obligation to sort of quote unquote our future self like the future humans the humans that will inhabit the planet because what we come into was created was created or shaped by someone and somebody's going to come into that and so we have a moral obligation something people might say to you oh yeah well I'm here now and you know nobody did anything for me so why should I care about what happens to somebody who's around when I'm not yeah or you might
• 02:30 - 03:00 ask what should we do for future people right what have they ever done for us right well they and they haven't ever because they're going to what are they going to ever have done for us exactly for sure um but I think the idea that we should care about future people is just utterly common sense so imagine you're walking um you're hiking on a trail and you drop some glass and it shatters and you wonder should I pick up the glass should I clean after myself maybe someone walk along the trail and cut themselves and you think well you know obviously I should because I don't want to harm
• 03:00 - 03:30 someone right but now just imagine do they cut themselves tomorrow or in a year's time or in 100 years time would that change the morality of the situation I don't think so harm is harm no matter when it occurs and just as we should care about people whether they're in this country or on the other side of the planet no matter where they are in space we should care about people no matter where they are in time as well so how do how do we begin to get people to agree with that because
• 03:30 - 04:00 um you're based in the UK right and and so if I if I've read you know my research correctly you donate is it is it how many 50 of of your income uh yeah it's um a little more than that actually now so yeah so you you donate more than 50 of your income to causes that you believe in yeah that's right right that's that's amazing and and some people would say insane right and when I when I when I heard that you
• 04:00 - 04:30 did this I remember thinking oh but is it easier to do it because you come from a place where your health care will be taken care of is it easier to do this because you feel like there's a social net or is is it hard no matter where you're from like many Americans would say well I can't give away my money because I don't know how much a hospital bill will be I can't give away my money because I don't know what I'm going to need to pay for or not how do you convince people that giving away what they would say is hard earned is actually better for them when it's for others yeah I think there's a couple of
• 04:30 - 05:00 things here so one is just I acknowledge I'm in this position of unbelievable privilege and born into a rich country I was well educated um and that means you know I think I have like a responsibility to use you know that privilege to do good in the world but the Striking thing is that even after my giving so I try and give you know everything above about thirty five thousand dollars that still puts me in the richest three percent of the world's population if you're in earning
• 05:00 - 05:30 sixty thousand dollars per year you're never just one percent you are the one percent globally speaking and so I'm okay I'm giving 50 but I can hardly complain I'm still in the richest three percent hmm But The crucial thing really is I thought this was going to be a sacrifice I thought it was going to be hard but worth it because it was going to benefit so many people but it's actually not I've actually found it incredibly rewarding thing to do and I think my life is actually happier as a result so it means you know
• 05:30 - 06:00 I don't have a big house I don't have a fancy car right but I do have wonderful relationships I've got wonderful friends I'm also part of this broader Community effective autism community that is inspiring hard-working people who are really focused on trying to make the world better and I hope at least we're really making a positive difference and that's just that's worth more than all the luxury goods that money could buy wow it's uh it's it's a it's a mind shift I think
• 06:00 - 06:30 it's a mind shift that's extremely difficult to achieve which is you know I guess why you do the work that you do it's also interesting to see how many billionaires have signed on to your ideas you know everybody from uh you know Bill Gates to to Elon Musk who don't even agree with each other by the way and have both said oh yeah I really like what William is saying I really agree with this I think we should be giving away vast amounts of our wealth Etc but but when I when I see this I often think to myself it's easy for us to say people should
• 06:30 - 07:00 give away 10 20 whatever of their welcome so everyone should do this of their income but when you get to a certain point ten percent or twenty percent of your income doesn't affect your life and if you're a billionaire and you give away 10 20 yes it's a huge number but it doesn't change this person's life whereas somebody who's working paycheck paycheck to paycheck notices when 10 or 20 of their money is gone so shouldn't this be an obligation that is placed predominantly at the feet of those who are the most privileged so I think it's absolutely an obligation on the most privileged so yeah if you're a
• 07:00 - 07:30 billionaire so Bill Gates you know ushered in a new era of billionaire philanthropy saying 50 right I think the standard should be higher 99 or more and and uh so yeah I mean people are laughing but a decent chunk of my life is talking to billionaires and trying to convince them to give you almost done I don't know what you say William help me understand this let me understand so I mean uh so
• 07:30 - 08:00 billionaires on a tourist for not giving their money away I think that's going to change um at least what do you say what do you say to them well at least for some so say two things one like you say just money just above a certain threshold money just doesn't affect your well-being right come on and then secondly money can be used to make a transformative difference it cost three thousand dollars to Save a Life by protecting children in sub-Saharan Africa uh from metal area by Distributing insect Associated bad Nets
• 08:00 - 08:30 this is a very reliable well-evidounced facts three thousand dollars yeah and that's with insecticides the the bed nettings bed nets to protect them from malaria which is still one of the biggest if not the biggest killer thousands of children every day die um unnecessarily there are other risks too right you know pandemics are something we want about nuclear war and so uh yeah the case is just like look it's going to make almost no difference in your life it's gonna be enormously impactful for the world right and actually we've seen success so there are
• 08:30 - 09:00 a number of people um in the kind of broader effect developers movement Dustin Moskowitz now sandbank and Fleet who are planning to give 99 or more and I think that could be the new standard wow when you when you talk in the book you know there are parts that I that I read where you interrogate the reader to ask questions about how they view the world and and I think most importantly how much they want to make a difference so for instance you'll argue here you say if you want to make an impact in climate change you know there are things you can do for instance you can become a
• 09:00 - 09:30 vegetarian you can say okay I'm going to try and limit my carbon output if you really care you can say I'm going to travel less I'm going to fly less so I'm going to ride a bicycle more or whatever whatever it may be you're talking to people and you're talking to individuals do you feel that the messages as well received by corporations that have like an outsized output because every one person can try to do one thing but like most of the smoke that's coming out and you know most of the output you know the carbon output is it's coming from concentrated places yes I'm not saying
• 09:30 - 10:00 individuals don't make a big contribution but do you find any of those big sources or or receptive to this or is or is the money too big and the the face to obscure yeah I mean honestly I've been kind of pretty disappointed at attempts to move companies in a more philanthropic Direction because corporate philanthropy 99 of the time is a PR mechanism okay and so some of the misconceptions that people have about how best to fight
• 10:00 - 10:30 climate change you can actually see being promoted by fossil fuel companies so shells very keen on the idea that um what we should be doing is reducing our carbon footprint personally yes whereas what we should be trying to do is put the fossil fuel companies out of business laughs oh I've seen why you haven't broken through it and and we as individuals can help do that so look if you try and reduce your
• 10:30 - 11:00 own carbon footprint okay in the U.S uh American um will emit about 15 Tons of carbon dioxide um go be a hero do everything you can maybe you can get that to zero you can do as much good as if you know you'd never been born okay that's the kind of standard um but we can do so much more than that donate 10 of your income let's say that's three thousand dollars for the very most targeted organizations funding clean technology the sort of thing that
• 11:00 - 11:30 means we no longer need to rely on fossil fuels okay then you would then you would reduce the amount of carbon dioxide going into the atmosphere by something that's more like 3 000 tons per year oh wow so you'd be doing 200 times as much good with very targeted donations to the most effective non-profits even compared to your this you know heroic effort to write your carbon footprint then so just three thousand it's like you have a choice three thousand dollars or just never be born yeah a three thousand dollars
• 11:30 - 12:00 sounds cheap I think that sounds like a cheaper I think it's pretty good thank you so much for joining me on the show thank you so much I wish I could Encompass everything in the book but that's why you wrote the book I hope to see you again uh William mccaskill everybody [Applause] [Music]