"Giving What We Can"

A number of philosophers, both faculty and students, have banded together in a new effort to encourage systematic giving to charities that try to relieve global poverty.  It is an admirable initiative, though I will confess to wondering whether more good might be achieved by committing the same amount of resources to fundamental structural change in the political and economic systems of the wealthy West.  This is a hard empirical question, of course, and I do invite readers to consider the informative web site of the new campaign, and especially the detailed information about charitable and humanitarian organizations that would make good use of financial support.

UPDATE:  Reader David Slutsky points out that there is a blog discussion of this initiative here.