Absolutely true, but does it help the children now? It's a bit like antimalarial research, of course it will help millions of people when a vaccination is final

Absolutely true, but does it help the children now? It's a bit like antimalarial research, of course it will help millions of people when a vaccination is finally available. But it won't help those children who will be infected next week, free mosquito nets and free drugs might help. Looking only at the longterm economic development perspective you are absolutely right, but if you want to help those suffering right now, you are wrong. Your quote: "And yet if you diff present conditions against conditions 100 or 500 years ago-- even in the poorest places--" What would starving people think about us when we tell them that we are not giving them any food because it's not worth it in the long term?