But then that only makes sense if the work I’m doing is extremely extremely valuable, because I still have to compare it against the bar of $200 equals ~1 year of life saved.
That seems at least an order of magnitude wrong. From GiveWell:
Because the initial outputs of these charities are so inexpensive (for example, it costs about $5 to purchase and deliver an insecticide-treated net), many people are surprised at how expensive it is to save a life—about $4,500 on average for funding we directed in 2020.1
I also think that GiveWell numbers are rather on the optimistic end than the pessimistic end, so I would expect the true cost to be higher.
$4,500 is the cost to save a life, whereas $200 is the quote for saving 1 year of life. Saving a life produces, IIRC, somewhere around 25-30 QALY’s. So, $200/year would be correct, accounting for rounding, if GiveWell’s estimates are trustworthy.
In the GiveWell article I quoted they estimate an uber-5-year-old life saved costs $7000, for 37 DALYs, which equals about $189 per life year saved. But if it was actually $4500 per life as you suggest, that would be closer to $121 per life year saved or about 5 months of life for $50 instead of 3 months as I said, but I would rather err on the conservative side.
That seems at least an order of magnitude wrong. From GiveWell:
I also think that GiveWell numbers are rather on the optimistic end than the pessimistic end, so I would expect the true cost to be higher.
$4,500 is the cost to save a life, whereas $200 is the quote for saving 1 year of life. Saving a life produces, IIRC, somewhere around 25-30 QALY’s. So, $200/year would be correct, accounting for rounding, if GiveWell’s estimates are trustworthy.
In the GiveWell article I quoted they estimate an uber-5-year-old life saved costs $7000, for 37 DALYs, which equals about $189 per life year saved. But if it was actually $4500 per life as you suggest, that would be closer to $121 per life year saved or about 5 months of life for $50 instead of 3 months as I said, but I would rather err on the conservative side.