Yep, I think the discussion around how much we value different animal lives is pretty central to this. I think it deserves a post on its own—perhaps that’s the next thing I’ll write!
I think you’re right in theory about interventions with constant returns, but I’m not sure many interventions actually behave this way. To take GiveDirectly, I see one of the most large (potential) benefits being that developing countries may begin cash transfer systems after seeing GiveDirectly’s success. To that end, $50 million looks very different from $150 to $300 in how quickly countries will hear about their successes, how much media attention GiveDirectly receives, etc. It’s probably very impossible to predict where these cut-offs are—I’m just trying to highlight that optimizing our donations is of course what we should aim for, but pretty hard when many of the benefits come from policy changes from a diverse set of actors.
Yep, I think the discussion around how much we value different animal lives is pretty central to this. I think it deserves a post on its own—perhaps that’s the next thing I’ll write!
I think you’re right in theory about interventions with constant returns, but I’m not sure many interventions actually behave this way. To take GiveDirectly, I see one of the most large (potential) benefits being that developing countries may begin cash transfer systems after seeing GiveDirectly’s success. To that end, $50 million looks very different from $150 to $300 in how quickly countries will hear about their successes, how much media attention GiveDirectly receives, etc. It’s probably very impossible to predict where these cut-offs are—I’m just trying to highlight that optimizing our donations is of course what we should aim for, but pretty hard when many of the benefits come from policy changes from a diverse set of actors.
Good points, Carl!