EA Forum Podcast (Curated & popular)31 Des 2025

“I give because it’s the most rational way to spend my money” by Lorenzo Buonanno🔸

I really enjoyed reading the "why I donate" posts in the past week, so much so that I felt compelled to add my reflections, in case someone finds my reasons as interesting as I found theirs.

1. My money needs to be spent on something, might as well spend it on the most efficient things

The core reason I give is something that I think is under-represented in the other posts: the money I have and earn will need to be spent on something, and it feels extremely inefficient and irrational to spend it on my future self when it can provide >100x as much to others.

To me, it doesn't seem important whether I'm in the global top 10% or bottom 10%, or whether the money I have is due to my efforts or to the place I was born. If it can provide others 100x as much, it just seems inefficient/irrational to allocate it to myself.

Honestly, the post could end here, but there are other secondary reasons/perspectives on why I personally donate that I haven't seen commonly discussed.

2. Spending money is voting on how the global economy allocates its resources

In 2017, I read Wealth [...]

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Outline:

(00:22) 1. My money needs to be spent on something, might as well spend it on the most efficient things

(01:09) 2. Spending money is voting on how the global economy allocates its resources

(04:11) 3. I dont think its as bad as some make it out to be

(07:35) 4. I donate because Im an atheist (/s)

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First published:
December 15th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/CSKob9hGmWM7f7yv8/i-give-because-it-s-the-most-rational-way-to-spend-my-money

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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