X-Message-Number: 28057 From: "John de Rivaz" <> Subject: economics Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2006 23:37:27 +0100 >> According to the New Scientist poll, just under 30% of those polled said >> that they would go for it if it was free. > >Interesting! And how many if you have to pay? after the resulting publicity, as with any other cryonics publicity, very few actually signed up. Not zero, but relative to the 30% very near it. >If people prefer to lynch a handy scapegoat instead of going through a >legal process, then it is their choice also. "the rich", ie those richer than the speaker or writer, have always been handy scapegoats, especially if they can also be identified by some other characteristic. Often immigrant workers who work harder than the natives and thereby amass money become victims of this sort of thing, especially after several generations. This has gone on in Europe for thousands of years, not just the 20th century. The problem with worries about the 200 or so richest people, is how this may be resolved. It could be resolved by methods that reflect on everybody and start a long dark age. Programmes against "the rich" in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century impoverished the whole nation and had repercussions throughout Eastern Europe and indeed the whole world. The question which remains unanswered in my mind is how the riches of these 200 would be managed if they were deleted from the scenario. It is easy to say "use 1% to educate everyone" but this still has to be managed. There would still have to be Mr Bigs at the top -- such as despised characters like Bush and Blair. At least with rich individuals who have got there under their own power there is less politicking and arguing, they just get on with it. Gates decided on malaria and didn't have to waste years arguing about it. It was just a shame that he didn't decide on defeating the ageing process. But if a group had taken (ie stolen) the money, is that the sort of organisation that would be desirable to manage an anti-ageing programme? -- Sincerely, John de Rivaz: http://John.deRivaz.com for websites including Cryonics Europe, Longevity Report, The Venturists, Porthtowan, Alec Harley Reeves - inventor, Arthur Bowker - potter, de Rivaz genealogy, Nomad .. and more Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=28057