[db48x]

> Using changes in death rates to gauge the actual number of "lives saved" from preventable illness is going to be fraught with confounding factors.

I agree but I was going for an upper bound not an exact figure. This is just a comment field on HN, after all, not a real publication. I think it’s obvious that USAID did not save 90 million lives. The programs it funded probably didn’t even interact with 90 million people in any way.

> They also did a great deal in spreading goodwill for the USA

They also funded trans–gender clinics, anti–government revolutionaries, protest movements, pro–Democrat magazines in the US, and a bunch of other nonsense. A lot of it was about destabilizing other people’s economies, not helping them out or getting them to like us. If you want to fund those things with your own money then I won’t stop you, but taking money away from everybody to pay for them is not worthwhile.

[foxyv]

I'm not sure that is entirely accurate. I wasn't able to verify any of your claims with a casual Google search. Do you have sources?