...it may be the most efficient means for a private individual to alleviate poverty (on a nanoscale of course, I have no illusions about that) But I have to wonder how much of this private aid gets sucked down the black hole of corruption and resource substitution.
I highly recommend the Singularity Institute as an efficient way to boost our chances of alleviating poverty on a macro scale. Every dollar counts.
The remarkable observation that medical spending has zero net marginal effect is shocking, but not completely unprecedented.
According to Spiegel in "Too Much of a Good Thing: Choking on Aid Money in Africa", the Washington Center for Global Development calculated that it would require $3,521 of marginal development aid invested, per person, in order to increase per capita yearly income by $3.65 (one penny per day).
The Kenyan economist James Shikwati is even more pessimistic in "For God's Sake, Please Stop the Aid!": The net effect of Western aid to Africa is actively destructive (even when it isn't stolen to prop up corrupt regimes), a chaotic flux of money and goods that destroys local industry.
What does aid to Africa have in common with healthcare spending? Besides, of course, that it's heartbreaking to just say no -