Dwarkesh Patel: observation

Transcript context

…No, cumulatively we're already well north of 500 million hens. We're into the billions of broiler chickens. If you assume these things weren't just around the corner, they weren't just going to happen anyway, if you think you probably sped up progress by years, decades, maybe it would never have happened… That cumulative impact over those years and decades is giant. We're talking billions, we're talking tens of billions. The amount of money spent just on those corporate reforms was less than $100 million a year over a couple of years. We're talking about a ratio that is far less than 1:10 of a dollar per year of animal well being improved. So you're saying $1 can do more than 10 years of a better, more humane life? That is stupendous. A couple hours of pain is just awful and terrible. You're saying 10 years for a dollar? The reason why that’s so shocking…On its face it's shocking. But in other areas where you're trying to do global health or something, first, the problem is improving on its own. Second, with the Gates Foundation etc., there's tens of billions of dollars already being poured into the problem. It’s the same with climate change, etc. The idea that you would find an intervention where a single dollar can go this far is just genuinely crazy. It's very unique. The reason this philanthropic opportunity exists is because this area has been systematically neglected. Most people, when they think of philanthropy, do not think of farmed animals. Most people pile into popular areas like education and healthcare and climate. As a result, you end up with these outsized opportunities that no one has taken advantage of. If the space had billions of dollars in it, as other philanthropic areas do, you would not see opportunities like this.…

Stored transcript either side of the excerpt. The highlighted words are the published quote; the surrounding text is unedited source, never generated.