X-Message-Number: 9606
Date: Sun, 03 May 1998 15:26:47 +0100
From:  (John de Rivaz)
Subject: Re: Paying for Research, Companies and Lawsuits

I will try and keep this brief.

Paying for research
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Investment in technology has produced substantial gains over the past few 
years. Assuming that technology growth continues, this is also likely to 
continue. If technology growth does not continue, then cryonics is really 
doomed, as reanimations are not possible with present technology. Research 
in isolation, with all other technology static, is not likley to produce the 
enormous advances still required.

Is not one solution to invest money in a fund which is designed to grow as a 
result of technological advance, and at some point in the future when the 
fund is big enough *then* to start the research program? The costs of 
research need not have risen, indeed they may have fallen due to improved 
methods and equipment.

It is important to realise that the growth in technology companies is due to 
real wealth generation (improvement in knowledge), not the inflationary 
price rises upon which many fortunes were made in the mid and early 20th 
century.

Comments on possible poor dividend return from a cryonics research company.
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Intel is an example of a successful company, and its shareholders seem very 
happy with a dividend of $0.30 a quarter on an investment of the order of 
$800. 

Microsoft is another successful company, and competitors have taken to legal 
adventuring to try and stop them introducing new products. They are begining 
to look ridiculous because the speed of technological advance is so fast in 
relation to the speed of legal work. [There are cases still pending re 
Windows95 which product will soon be obsolete.]

The answer may be to *incorporate off shore* so that the company is outside 
the jurisdiction of any litigious country. This will still give immortalist 
orientated investors the ability to invest and gain any profits, or indeed 
to sell their shares at a loss at some point in order to avoid gains taxes 
penalising gains in other sectors. Shares sold at a loss can be re-purchased 
later. 

There mare many companies quoted on US markets that are located overseas. I 
do not know the legal situation, but I would suspect the legal adventuring 
that one sees with US based quoted companies is not so easy in these 
instances. Maybe this is reflected in a lower rating for their shares, I do 
not know.


-- 
Sincerely,     * Longevity Report:  http://www.longevb.demon.co.uk/lr.htm
John de Rivaz  * Fractal Report:    http://www.longevb.demon.co.uk/fr.htm
**************** Homepage:http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/JohndeR
    In the information age, sharing can increase world wealth enormously,
        because giving information does not decrease your information.

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