I mean, yeah, but I also think some people here are being a little harsh on LW - they say in the letter that (sometimes) they agree they should be giving a lot more away, they aren't actually in the top tier of asshole rich people (and when you know you should be giving more away but you don't really know how or where so you don't, it's easy to come up with reasons why.) $700 000 and don't know how to handle that money kind of reads to me like someone who didn't grow up that rich but just landed a really overpaid job, and it does take awhile to figure it out.
I would rather they annoy the people at the homeless charity while giving them money and learning from them than give the money to the first dominionist megachurch pastor who asks. But this goes back to the "giving away large amounts of money is hard" point I was making - having large amounts of money to give away doesn't actually come with the ability to know the best way to do it, and saying they should give it away but then nitpicking every opinion they express about it doesn't help. At that point they might as *well* just give some extra to the government. You gotta learn who needs help somehow; getting to know the people who run the homeless charity is as good a way as any, and the fundraising people at the homeless charity ought to have some expertise on handholding and/or disposing of clueless rich people with bad politics. (They also all know each other, and it hooks you into a network of a) local charities who need money and b) other charitable rich people who can mentor you.)
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I would rather they annoy the people at the homeless charity while giving them money and learning from them than give the money to the first dominionist megachurch pastor who asks. But this goes back to the "giving away large amounts of money is hard" point I was making - having large amounts of money to give away doesn't actually come with the ability to know the best way to do it, and saying they should give it away but then nitpicking every opinion they express about it doesn't help. At that point they might as *well* just give some extra to the government. You gotta learn who needs help somehow; getting to know the people who run the homeless charity is as good a way as any, and the fundraising people at the homeless charity ought to have some expertise on handholding and/or disposing of clueless rich people with bad politics. (They also all know each other, and it hooks you into a network of a) local charities who need money and b) other charitable rich people who can mentor you.)