Open Borders as Ultra-Effective Altruism

The Effective Altruism movement and open borders advocates have a long history of mutual sympathy. Last month, I tried to convince the Vanderbilt Effective Altruism club that this mutual sympathy is entirely justified. The essence of effective altruism is trying to minimize the cost of doing good. Open borders offers a way to do great good at a cost of less than zero.

How? Simple: Allowing people to move from places where their productivity is low to where their productivity is high doesn’t merely increase their own wages. They increase the total production of humanity. And while you might fear a Fallacy of Composition, in this case, you shouldn’t.

Curious? Here’s the full presentation.