X-Message-Number: 12226
From: "John de Rivaz" <>
References: <>
Subject: Re: Seeking A Billionaire Patron 
Date: Tue, 3 Aug 1999 12:01:12 +0100

It is worthwhile noting that all billionaires are likely to want to
diversify their portfolios. Even Bill Gates is selling Microsoft shares each
year on the basis of diversification.

If even a small investor is advised to diversify, what rational person would
invest everything in any one company however laudable its aims or however
lucrative success may be. (These days a millionaire is really "small" on the
basis of what the word meant in the 1950s and 60s - a millionaire in any
currency cannot afford to buy and run planes and ships in the same way as
"millionaires" of fiction from the early part of the century. The
"millionaire" crooks of James Bond films are ludicrous even if they were
billionaires  - in Moonraker one such millionaire built and launched a
number of space shuttles - one went wrong and Mr B was called in when he
nicked another from the US government in order to replace it.)

Gates is planning to rid the world of AIDS and malaria with his next
charitable broadside - no mention of ageing or its degenerative diseases.

The other difficulty with cryonics is that it attracts rational
individualistic people, and the same reason would tell them not to "put all
their eggs in one basket".

However if one could attract someone like Gates and persuade him to *invest*
a tiny fraction of the sums he is *spending* trying to wipe out child abuse
or AIDS or malaria, then that would be far in excess of the assets of
everyone in the cryonics movement, even if they jumped off a cliff and gave
everything to the cause (rather than investing in it).

It could be argued to Mr Gates that if he invested in a cryonics or LE
company and the stock fell, the could offset the loss caused by the huge
bills he has to pay every time he diversifies some of the money in his
Microsoft shares. [But I am sure that the money going to the Foundation he
runs is kept clear of the dead hand of the tax man.]

--
Sincerely, John de Rivaz
my homepage links to Longevity Report, Fractal Report, my singles club for
people in Cornwall, music, Inventors' report, an autobio and various other
projects:       http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/JohndeR

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