If one man donates……

We have two men.

One is a billionaire.
Another has maybe one thousand dollars to his name.

The billionaire donates one million dollars to a "good" cause.
The other guy donates 500 dollars to a "good" cause.

Which donation is more worthy of praise? Does it mean anything in terms of the value of the men in question?

What's a good cause? Tax evasion? Pushing a politician during elections? Adding to a pile of microtransaction donations to a religious organization?
Dunno, but a good cause, just as Destiny 2 obsession/hatred, depends on taste.

Of two offered options, neither is worth praise.
Assuming the donation is given as an act of love for humanity without any side thoughts, only anonymous donations where noone (except best friends and family) knows who, where and what are praiseworthy.

When it comes to donations there is a third category - mediator. Negative in most cases (seeking fame, harvesting organs from executed prisoners or hobo abductees, etc) but sadly usually a necessity in modern day as charity can't be organized by itself.
Before I drop into a wall of text trap as I'd rather accept insults on my eloquence than become a boring grumbler, just will mention one of the worst recent mediator charity cases loathe worthy: Warner and "Forthog the Orc Slayer" DLC scandal.

A good cause would be donating towards inventing a time machine and then going back in time and giving joxer some kind of education about reality

Fun aside, I'd say your opinion in this case is somewhat less insane than your usual ones

Originally Posted by Darth Tagnan
Which donation is more worthy of praise? Does it mean anything in terms of the value of the men in question?

Theoretically - Other Guy. Many real life things could easily mess that up, of course. Other Guy may only have hours to live and thus has no need of money or Other Guy could be a charity case himself so giving away $1000 just means some other charity has to give him $1000 to make up for it. Real life always makes a mess of things like this, which is one of the things that makes fiction so much fun.

Sticking with the theoretical world, though, I think you could make it a lot more extreme. If Rich Guy gives away 99% of his money, he's still sitting on $10 million (I think - "million" seems to translate funny on different sides of the Atlantic) and is going to live a very comfortable life. Maybe he won't be able to get that second yacht this year. Meanwhile, Other Guy is going to need to give up much more important things: better clothing, healthier food, decent video cards…. As I said above, though, if it gets into necessities then the calculations change.

Of course, we're JUST talking about how much praise the giver DESERVES. Praise can get screwed up by how it is we came to find out about these donations. If Other Guy starts bragging about how much he gave and how much more difficult it has made his life, the praise drops amazingly fast. So, while Other Guy deserves more praise, there may be a problem if he actually gets that praise.

Originally Posted by Zloth
Theoretically - Other Guy. Many real life things could easily mess that up, of course. Other Guy may only have hours to live and thus has no need of money or Other Guy could be a charity case himself so giving away $1000 just means some other charity has to give him $1000 to make up for it. Real life always makes a mess of things like this, which is one of the things that makes fiction so much fun.

Sticking with the theoretical world, though, I think you could make it a lot more extreme. If Rich Guy gives away 99% of his money, he's still sitting on $10 million (I think - "million" seems to translate funny on different sides of the Atlantic) and is going to live a very comfortable life. Maybe he won't be able to get that second yacht this year. Meanwhile, Other Guy is going to need to give up much more important things: better clothing, healthier food, decent video cards…. As I said above, though, if it gets into necessities then the calculations change.

Of course, we're JUST talking about how much praise the giver DESERVES. Praise can get screwed up by how it is we came to find out about these donations. If Other Guy starts bragging about how much he gave and how much more difficult it has made his life, the praise drops amazingly fast. So, while Other Guy deserves more praise, there may be a problem if he actually gets that praise.

I agree with most - if not all - of that

Yes, I realise it can become extremely complicated once we factor in a bunch of unknowns - but I prefer to keep such questions open, because it allows for people to contribute with their own thoughts, rather than me curtailing the answer before it's given.

So, thanks!

Shouldn't work this way. How do we evaluate the quality of a donation. I'm not going to tell you how much I have or how much I have donated because I think this thread is baiting and in a fashion inappropriate.

I will say that many (not all) billionaire make lousy humans and many people with no means at all are quite generous (which I suppose is your point); but your statement leaves out a lot of context hence my comment on baiting. Besides who are we to judge.

Originally Posted by Darth Tagnan
We have two men.

One is a billionaire.
Another has maybe one thousand dollars to his name.

The billionaire donates one million dollars to a "good" cause.
The other guy donates 500 dollars to a "good" cause.

Which donation is more worthy of praise? Does it mean anything in terms of the value of the men in question?

Originally Posted by you
Shouldn't work this way. How do we evaluate the quality of a donation. I'm not going to tell you how much I have or how much I have donated because I think this thread is baiting and in a fashion inappropriate.

I will say that many (not all) billionaire make lousy humans and many people with no means at all are quite generous (which I suppose is your point); but your statement leaves out a lot of context hence my comment on baiting. Besides who are we to judge.

What a very interesting and unusual interpretation of what I asked. Especially from a person who's so obsessed with "not judging".

Anyway, thank you for contributing

If I’m the ”good” cause, that donator gets more praise, of course, from me.

Originally Posted by Eye
If I’m the ”good” cause, that donator gets more praise, of course, from me.

So, you would praise the billionaire more than the other guy, in this case?

O, right. I did not think of me being that rich that I’d get two donations.

Well, to be honest, I guess I’d really freak out getting a million…, unless it is someone that thinks by giving he can buy me.

Edit.
But if it is a difference of say €100 and €10… it depends… getting €100 from someone I am not intimate with would probably make me feel uncomfortable, there is a chance I’d return it. So the one giving €10 would get more praise. Irrespective of how much the donators are making every month.

Originally Posted by Eye
O, right. I did not think of me being that rich that I’d get two donations.

Well, to be honest, I guess I’d really freak out getting a million…, unless it is someone that thinks by giving he can buy me.

That's not an answer

I think I'd be flattered if someone wanted to buy me for a million dollars.

Objectively flattered, you might say. Subjectively, I don't really have much interest in surplus money - and I'm not for sale regardless, so it's pretty academic.

Also, I'm very much against the idea of ownership when it comes to living beings, so…

I think donations shouldn't be praised for the sake of it. Someone giving money to a cause is because they believe it is a cause worth giving money for or sometimes fighting for.

The donation in itself is not worthy of praise, but the cause itself can be.

If I donate to charity it's because I think the charity is/will be doing good work on my behalf. I don't want/need/care for praise and I think that is how charity should be.

But if it is a difference of say €100 and €10… it depends… getting €100 from someone I am not intimate with would probably make me feel uncomfortable, there is a chance I’d return it. So the one giving €10 would get more praise. Irrespective of how much the donators are making every month.

Ok, interesting.

Thank you

For me, the act of sharing/giving is it's own reward, and is best experienced by just myself. The act itself is quite subjective, and who am I to say a cause is higher or lower, simply based on what I believe. When I give to a cause, I prefer to keep it anonymous, and again that is just a matter of choice. Were I to learn of people giving to a worthy charity or cause, I would likely keep that knowledge to myself, on fear of embarrassing the giver.

I would not know how to answer this without additional information on this scenario.
Maybe, if the "other guy" spends half his money and has not enough to live of, it's not so much a question of praise, but rather one of mental health?

Going through the other answers, the differences mostly seem to stem from what additional assumptions are made, rather than from differences in world views.
Although, maybe that's the same thing in the end?

Originally Posted by Cacheperl
I would not know how to answer this without additional information on this scenario.
Maybe, if the "other guy" spends half his money and has not enough to live of, it's not so much a question of praise, but rather one of mental health?

Going through the other answers, the differences mostly seem to stem from what additional assumptions are made, rather than from differences in world views.
Although, maybe that's the same thing in the end?

I ask mostly to (attempt to) provoke exchange - and not because I'm terribly concerned by the format of an answer.

To me, the fact that you don't want to answer because you require specifics - is no less interesting than someone inventing their own circumstances as they deem necessary to answer the question.

Whoever gave the bigger % of their total money was the most generous.

But the greater donation is more worthy of praise if you want them to donate again.

What joxer says about anonymous donations not having praise is correct, so are we really talking about praise or generosity?

Goods, service or money, as far as giving goes, one gives to get something out of the donation (like praise or feeling good about oneself by helping X).

Reminds me of this

Originally Posted by Eye
Goods, service or money, as far as giving goes, one gives to get something out of the donation (like praise or feeling good about oneself by helping X).

But is giving to feel good not worthy of praise?