memes

you can still have a huge impact on people in poorer countries

You can pay someone else to presumably benefit from the strong dollar relative. But you're still playing a trust game with a lot of unknowns.

The "nets for malaria" charity is a great instance of people trying to moneyball the short term pay-off without thinking about long term and second order consequences. Most notably, use of malaria nets for fishing. Counterintuitively, you'd do better supplying a community with fishing nets. Because then they won't use the malaria nets improperly.

That's not even to say "don't send these charities money". Please do. But chucking money down the "Charity" hole and hoping it lands where it needs to is an act of faith as profound as any religious belief. You are, at the end of the day, playing a game of telephone with everyone between you and the intended recipients.

You rarely, if ever, get to meet the people you're supposed to benefit. You never get to see the long-term social returns on your investment, particularly when it is happening on the other side of the planet. You don't build community with any of the people you're aiding and you're not anticipating any kind of reciprocal aid in your own time of need.

The impact you have is ultimately invisible to you. The broader social benefits are invisible. The returns are, at the absolute best, a momentary personal sense of good-vibes. There is no virtuous cycle you're participating in, just an endless void you're expected to bleed into.