An argument I frequently hear (and generally buy into) against impact investing is that fungibility of investment money leads to unethical actors taking the extra wins created by impact investing. Hence, one should optimize for capital gains in 'investment' buckets and optimize for philanthropy in the 'doing good' bucket.
I'm concerned that this argument could then be applied to the money in my philanthropic bucket.
That is, does reducing my wealth by giving shift more capital gains onto non-altruistic actors? Put another way, in the long run under market economies, does philanthropy reduce the power of altruistic actors and increase the power of non-altruistic actors? If not, why?
Ah, good point! One confounding factor for me is that my primary cause area is animal welfare. In this realm, I am curious if the idea of a power transfer to those less fortunate is relevant. Perhaps if nonhuman animals are given a stake in policy in the long run, this could be true.
Great point that the counterfactual to my question is not always investment! (i.e. I can reduce consumption to increase my donations, rather than decreasing my investments) For context, I am already very bought in to GWWC (signed the pledge!), the life you can save, etc... I am... (read more)