Alan Dawrst argued that we should take the money we plan to donate and put it into investments with high risk premiums and then donate the winnings if there are any, because the expected utility is higher.
Is it possible that we could set up some collective and transparent investment fund to do this?
I personally don't think the investments would need to be tied to ethical investments, since I think the rules by which investors play by must be changed for any real progress to occur. To be honest, virtually all transactions have negative externalities which we barely even think about. Though, certainly, all else being equal, ethical investments are better. The only real utilitarian justification for a blanket rule enforcing ethical investing for this hypothetical investment fund is the necessity to appear more pure for public relations purposes.
Of course, if the expected utility is higher regardless of the amount, and the transaction costs are low enough, there is no need for pooling resources
Does anyone have any ideas for investments with high risk premiums? All I can think of are IPOs and Angel Investments.... and with regard to those, ethical investing actually makes more of a difference in potentially getting a noble enterprise off the ground.
Thoughts?
Is it possible that we could set up some collective and transparent investment fund to do this?
I personally don't think the investments would need to be tied to ethical investments, since I think the rules by which investors play by must be changed for any real progress to occur. To be honest, virtually all transactions have negative externalities which we barely even think about. Though, certainly, all else being equal, ethical investments are better. The only real utilitarian justification for a blanket rule enforcing ethical investing for this hypothetical investment fund is the necessity to appear more pure for public relations purposes.
Of course, if the expected utility is higher regardless of the amount, and the transaction costs are low enough, there is no need for pooling resources
Does anyone have any ideas for investments with high risk premiums? All I can think of are IPOs and Angel Investments.... and with regard to those, ethical investing actually makes more of a difference in potentially getting a noble enterprise off the ground.
Thoughts?