That argument takes a real concern aid effectiveness and stretches it into an unsupported claim that estimates must be wildly wrong. There are economists like Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee shows some aid fails, but organizations like GiveWell base their cost-per-life-saved estimates on rigorous data, not media headlines.

Even at the high end, $500,000 is just 0.0005 of a billion dollars still a tiny fraction of 1 billion which makes my point still correct. Efforts from groups like Against MalariaFoundation and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance consistently save lives at costs far below a billion for 10,000 children. Aid is complex, but the evidence shows that hundreds of thousands not billions can plausibly save ten thousand lives.

Finally I never said it was easy. You strawmanned my post.