Should Effective Altruists Have Kids?

Nicholas Decker

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Should Effective Altruists Have Kids?

by Nicholas Decker

Jan 91 min read 1

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Cause prioritizationGlobal health & developmentPhilosophyEconomic growthPopulation ethicsResearch

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This is a linkpost for https://nicholasdecker.substack.com/p/should-effective-altruists-have-kids

Yes. I review why children are so important in the context of economic growth. I then roughly estimate parameters for the value that children will create, and it comes out so strongly positive that basically any reasonable altruist would want to have kids.

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harfeJan 105

the child is adding an expected value of $27,275 per year in social surplus.

It would take $133,333 per year to raise a child to adulthood for it to not be worthwhile

I think the comparison of "social surplus" to effective donations is mistaken here. A social surplus of $27,275 (in the US) does not save 5 lives, but an effective donation of that size might.