The data in this paper comes from the 2006 paper “Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries”.
I don’t understand. Does this paper not support the claim?
I’ve actually never heard this claim before, personally. Instead, people like Toby Ord talked about how the cost of curing someone’s blindness through the Fred Hollows Foundation was 1,000x cheaper than training a seeing eye dog.
I agree that the paper support the claim. I highlighted the title to clarify the niche subject matter of the graph, which is also adequately described in Toby’s paper. My reason for doing so was to show that you can’t extrapolate from this context to charities in general.
Okay. Thanks. I guessed maybe that’s what you were trying to say. I didn’t even look at the paper. It’s just not clear from the post why you’re citing this paper and what point you’re trying to make about it.
I agree that we can’t extrapolate from the claim “the most effective charities at fighting diseases in developing countries are 1,000x more effective than the average charity in that area” to “the most effective charities, in general, are 1,000x more effective than the average charity”.
If people are making the second claim, they definitely should be corrected. I already believed you that you’ve heard this claim before, but I’m also seeing corroboration from other comments that this is a commonly repeated claim. It seems like a case of people starting with a narrow claim that was true and then getting a little sloppy and generalizing it beyond what the evidence actually supports.
Trying to say how much more effective the best charities are from the average charity seems like a dauntingly broad question, and I reckon the juice ain’t worth the squeeze. The Fred Hollows Foundation vs. seeing eye dog example gets the point across.
I don’t understand. Does this paper not support the claim?
I’ve actually never heard this claim before, personally. Instead, people like Toby Ord talked about how the cost of curing someone’s blindness through the Fred Hollows Foundation was 1,000x cheaper than training a seeing eye dog.
I agree that the paper support the claim. I highlighted the title to clarify the niche subject matter of the graph, which is also adequately described in Toby’s paper. My reason for doing so was to show that you can’t extrapolate from this context to charities in general.
Okay. Thanks. I guessed maybe that’s what you were trying to say. I didn’t even look at the paper. It’s just not clear from the post why you’re citing this paper and what point you’re trying to make about it.
I agree that we can’t extrapolate from the claim “the most effective charities at fighting diseases in developing countries are 1,000x more effective than the average charity in that area” to “the most effective charities, in general, are 1,000x more effective than the average charity”.
If people are making the second claim, they definitely should be corrected. I already believed you that you’ve heard this claim before, but I’m also seeing corroboration from other comments that this is a commonly repeated claim. It seems like a case of people starting with a narrow claim that was true and then getting a little sloppy and generalizing it beyond what the evidence actually supports.
Trying to say how much more effective the best charities are from the average charity seems like a dauntingly broad question, and I reckon the juice ain’t worth the squeeze. The Fred Hollows Foundation vs. seeing eye dog example gets the point across.