Friday, September 9, 2011

265 too many

What would you do if you had huge (and by huge I mean massively ginormous) amounts of money laying around? My alma matter just got a ridiculously huge donation, and while I think it is great that people are willing and able to donate to the school they went to, it also seems like an enormous waste. I mean, what is that money actually going towards?  How is the research conducted going to improve the world? I was privileged to hear a speech today about the Healthy Start initiative, which implements programs in high-need areas to reduce infant mortality, so that babies can live longer, healthier lives. There are 104 sites across the nation, with over 300 cities qualifying for a site (so the demand is 3x more than the resources allow for), and for these sites there is a total federal budget of $100 million dollars -> ~1 million dollars per site. A lot, I know. But the donation that some rich dude just gave to CMU could spread the program to 265 more sites (admittedly for just 1 year, or many more years for less sites) and slash infant mortality, making a real impact on the next generation. Instead of donating to a privileged, wealthy university to do more research (I think?), one could have sustained whole programs, saved thousands, if not millions of lives, or, like fixed poverty or something. I'm just saying. 

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