We can only value lives at $10 million when we have limited opportunities to make that trade, or we’d go bankrupt.
I’m suspicious of the implication that we have many such opportunities. But a quick check suggests says it’s very dependent on guesses as to how many lives are saved be treatments.
I did a crude check for lives saved by cancer treatments. Optimistic estimates suggest that lives are being saved at less than $1 million per life. Robin Hanson’s writings have implied that the average medical treatments is orders of magnitude less effective than that.
I’m suspicious of the implication that we have many such opportunities. But a quick check suggests says it’s very dependent on guesses as to how many lives are saved be treatments.
I did a crude check for lives saved by cancer treatments. Optimistic estimates suggest that lives are being saved at less than $1 million per life. Robin Hanson’s writings have implied that the average medical treatments is orders of magnitude less effective than that.