I think they're clearly our objective
criteria for saying that some causes are
better than others one example that I
give in the book there's a charity
called the make-a-wish Foundation which
asks parents are very ill often dying
children to write in if their child has
a wish that they would like to have
fulfilled obviously you know it's a
short-term wish that foundation can't
save their lives and they write in and
they do something one example that I
read about was a child who wanted to be
that kid for a day so he dressed up in a
batkid costume the make-a-wish
Foundation got a car rigged up to look
like the Batmobile and somebody look
like Batman and they went on and
captured the villain and all of that
because the kid had a great day
undoubtedly but the average cost of
fulfilling a child's wish is seven and a
half thousand dollars now if given to an
effective organization that could save
two three four maybe more children's
lives and if you know if you compare
saving a child's life with giving a
child one great day than anybody that
child the parents anybody would say oh
so much better to save the child's life
of course and you can save not just one
child's life but more than one so I
think we ought to think about that
before we respond emotionally to what
seems like a great idea give a dying kid
a great day we ought to think about what
else can you do with that and that's the
same for all the giving opportunities
that we have on the internet now if
there's a GoFundMe appeal to save
somebody's pet tortoise something of
that sort well yeah that's nice but you
need to think what else you could do
with that money and possibly there are
things that you would agree are really
more important and as none of us have
infinite bank accounts we do always have
to think how much am I able to spare for
really trying to help people or animals
obviously I'm not against helping
animals but how much do I can I really
spare to try to reduce suffering in the
world and then if I have that amount
what's the best way to spend it how do I
get the best value for what
donating
