Yes, it may seem strange for rationalists. You are not the first who made this comment. My definition of “altruism” is rather unusual. It might be to call it “cosmic egoism”. The “cosmic ego” would be your extended self, which included all other sentient beings, due to the universality of consciousness. If you define yourself via your consciousness, then this core, consciousness is the same in every conscious being (even though you can’t actually perceive the contents of the consciousnesses of others). Why should the contents of “your” consciousness count more than those of “others”? They may count more for “you”, but from a cosmic perspective there is no way to single out any individual that should count more, because their consciousness is more “special” or “close”.
It is probably very confusing that I conflate my concept of cosmic egoism with the “common” interpretation of altruism.
The more enlightened egoism is, the less stupid it is. Long-term egoism (what people may call “enlightened” egoism), which includes long term thinking and indirect effects of your actions is smarter than short-term egoism. I think that cosmic egoism is the most enlightened form of egoism. So, I’m basically agreeing with you, but I call my advanced form of egoism “altruism” for simplicity (a simplicity that backfired, because my premise was questioned, rather than accepted and taken as basis for further analysis).
Oh, and cosmic egoism is pretty much the way that utilitarianism works: You assume a “cosmic” perspective in utilitarianism, rather than trying to figure out how to maximize happiness for one specific being.
However, this is a very challenging topic, so I would prefer not to use this thread for exploring that in depth. If anyone is really interested in deeper discussion of “cosmic egoism”, replying in a related thread, or asking me to make a thread for that would be preferred.
More related to the original topic, there is an interesting part of a PhD thesis by Cliff Landesman that concerns itself with altruism and how it could affect economic affairs. While researching altruism in the context of economics, I have found a quite fascinating Guardian article: Extreme altruism: should you care for strangers at the expense of your family?