The tl;dr being in the mid 1900s when somebody actually DID try to measure the results of a mentor program for at-risk youth, they found the impact was slightly negative.
Actually fixing societal problems is a really hard problem and what actually works is often very counterintuitive. I think the whole field could do to let the data guide them better (also difficult because so many outcomes are "make people feel better", and most people are pretty bad at actually knowing how they are or will be feeling).
I've long had this thought about charity itself, it seems that a lot of charity is propping up bits and pieces of capitalism so we don't look at the root causes of why we "need" charity in the first place.
On one hand it's great that children around the US can have life saving surgery because so many donated to their cause, on the other hand would we all be better off donating to a lobbying cause for single-payer healthcare?
If we could get that passed, every child in the US could have life saving surgery if needed and it wouldn't be a matter of whether or not their community is charitable enough.
The tl;dr being in the mid 1900s when somebody actually DID try to measure the results of a mentor program for at-risk youth, they found the impact was slightly negative.
Actually fixing societal problems is a really hard problem and what actually works is often very counterintuitive. I think the whole field could do to let the data guide them better (also difficult because so many outcomes are "make people feel better", and most people are pretty bad at actually knowing how they are or will be feeling).