The Victory Project

From Arnold Kling:

A web site called The Victory Project proposes billion-dollar prizes

" To the first person(s) that solves any of these Problems:

1. Develop a cure for breast cancer.

2. Develop a cure for diabetes.

3. Reduce greenhouse emissions from petroleum powered automobiles by 95% without increasing the cost of a normal car more than 5%.

4. Achieve 150 miles per gallon of gasoline in a 3,000 lb. car, using EPA standards; without increasing the cost of a normal car more than 10%."

I added my own comment saying that, while I like the basic principle, I think the goals need to be thought through a bit more. They should be broader: rather than reward cures for breast cancer and diabetes they should target something along the lines of increased longevity and wellbeing of, say, the US population, perhaps as measured by Quality Adjusted Life Years. Otherwise the prize might divert scarce research resources away from areas where they can achieve a much better return per dollar. Similarly with 3: total environmental damage is the problem, not just greenhouse gas emissions. Number 4 looks better but, again, the problem is total environmental damage: lots of cheap-to-run vehicles could raise net petrol consumption as well as total environmental damage.