Idk about magnitudes but in my country, Ecuador, alcoholism is a huge problem. We have some sin taxes on alcohol, but it seems difficult to raise them in part because binge-drinking is such a popular passtime and in part because there is lots of illegal production of moonshine-type alcohol that would likely gain market share with higher taxes on formal-sector alcohol products

Does anyone know if satellite and AI technology authorities could more easily identify acreage dedicated to sugar cane cultivation and tax this land more heavily than land devoted to other crops? Sugar cane is an important input for much of the bootleg moonshine in Ecuador, to my knowledge. Sugar cane also produces other harmful products, so I think taxing its production in this way could have other helpful effects and lead to more land and other agricultural resources being devoted to healthier crops

Good point. If rulers worry about the consequences for social life, for instance, they could reduce taxes on some other good that is important to bar and restaurant operations, or even reduce taxes on low alcohol% beverage options while raising taxes on stiffer blends

One can also imagine monetary costs being inflicted on families whose drunk adults now have less money leftover from their binge for picking up takeout or groceries

I think this is a good thought. With loneliness and social capital underdevelopment such large and apparently consequential problems, it is important to think about alternate candidates that might perform alcohol's social lubricant role

Thank you for this info. Am i understanding correctly that advocacy for taxes on sugary drinks is estimated to be 55x more effective than donation to givewell's recommended charities?

I think it is also useful to consider some civic consequences of depletion of non-tradable professional workforces. In countries where premature deindustrialization from import competition and IT and industrial automation have reduced the number of clerks, engineers, and factory workers, teachers, policemen, and nurses not only perform their professional roles but may also be the school board, the church organizers and donor pool, the newspaper's customer base, the treasurers of the local government, and maybe the base of a democratization movement. The nurse from Lagos at the medical post may be the only sympathetic, knowledgeable outsider to whom the village girls can look for advice or role modeling

To be fair, I can imagine remittances help thicken the civic fabric. Maybe by financing private school tuition for a nephew, or a family member's internet cafe business / print shop

Have you set up this school in Uganda? How has it gone?

Are there any promising political or technical initiatives that exist or that you would like to see to increase the volume of exports and employment in low-income countries? What are some important barriers in the present? Tariffs? Inadequate infrastructure in very poor countries?

congrats. i hope content will include setbacks in the fight to keep GBG / bichera fly out of Central America and Mexico, Uruguay's anti-bichera project and collaboration with Mexico, corn import tariffs' potential for reducing chicken industry scale, Fiocruz dengue vaccine efforts, chikugunya vaccine prospects, use of Brazilian and Portuguese media products such as telenovelas and soccer competitions for improving Portuguese fluency in ex - Portuguese colonies in sub-Saharan Africa to aid in nation-state consolidation and development

I think there are already tons of really smart people working full time on making the futures where we survive more valuable. I think the likeliest existential and catastrophic risks are relatively neglected