X-Message-Number: 26549
Date: Thu, 07 Jul 2005 21:57:46 -0700
From: Mike Perry <>
Subject: Re: Stodolsky's Suggestion
References: <>

David Stodolsky considers the possibility of setting up an organization 
like the Society for Venturism, but (if I read it correctly) not requiring 
the prospective member have cryonics arrangements already in place. Instead 
it would be possible to become a member and, in cases of financial 
hardship, have the organization guarantee your cryonic suspension if the 
need should arise. So, the problem with this in some ways highly 
commendable suggestion is, how would such an organization maintain its 
financial solvency? David suggests:

>There are two potential stumbling blocks: there must be adequate
>resources to set up the organization and there is a risk of "gambler's
>ruin", that is, going broke early due to too many suspensions. This
>risk can be made arbitrarily low by increasing the seed capital or
>imposing mandatory health requirements, etc.

David also offers some further suggestions that would deal with the above; 
my comments in square brackets []:

>average yearly income [of members, I take it] $10,000 [averaged over 
>employed as well as others such as children, assuming they too joined].
>one-tenth of income goes to the church [$1,000/member].
>payments over 100 years
>new members are uniformly age distributed
>current trends in life-span improvement continue (1/4 year per year)
>membership doubles yearly [this is the toughie if you ask me!]
>suspensions cost $50,000
>half of income is overhead or other functions

Overall, I see this as one more thing to think about--*could* work, or 
*could* fail miserably. I really think you'd be hard pressed, though, to 
double the membership each year for very long. That's a *very* fast growth 
rate!

Mike Perry

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