JacobLBryan

If you think one of those is the most efficient way to avert suffering then sure, why not?

I'm doing 1/3rd of gross, though it's not really very much since I'm still a student and I only work summer internships. Once I graduate I'm planning on setting a cap based on the cost of living wherever I end up, and donating everything above that.

Reducing or eradicating these diseases removes a huge burden from those in extreme poverty, it definitely is among the underlying problems that contribute to a lack of growth. It's also the most tractable.

It probably does lose out on some coordination efficiency that a hypothetical world government could achieve, but in today's world governments have a mandate to care for their own citizens before others, which means that first world governments miss out on the incredibly cheap interventions in the developing world. For example, the NHS in Britain will spend as much as £30,000 to provide a QALY (Quality Adjusted Life Year), when a similar year of life in the developing world can be provided for £50 at a conservative estimate.

I don't think of it as a criticism, moreso as an opportunity that people may not have fully considered. If you ask most people who do give to charity why they do it they'll usually say that they want to make a difference or alleviate suffering. As long as they aren't overly set in their ways they should be happy to hear about more effective giving opportunities, or maybe even to consider the entire question in a new framework that helps them better accomplish their stated goals.

One of the arguments regarding this is that employment in the sort of higher level careers we're talking about is fairly inelastic, so if you don't take the job then it will go to the next best candidate who applied. The impact is less about the total damage/good done by your position than it is about the difference between you and the next person in line (or basically the average person in that industry). If you're the sort of person who is concerned with maximizing impact in this way you'll probably do at least a bit better on the margin, and any money that you earn to donate is pure benefit since that wouldn't have happened otherwise.

It's about recognizing that you aren't a perfectly rational person, and then taking steps to maximize your altruism in ways that may not have been strictly optimal if you hadn't taken that into account. If seeing poverty firsthand is going to give you the motivation to do something about it when you return, then that's the action you should take, as long as you're being honest with yourself.