X-Message-Number: 9751
Date: Thu, 21 May 1998 08:39:45 -0400
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: CryoNet #9747 - #9749

Hi everyone!

About for-profit companies: when I invested in TT, I was indeed already
a hard-core cryonicist. And I did so not with the belief that I would
make money but the belief that TT was needed, for profit or not. (I'm
not speaking for others but for myself alone --- I believe there were
people who did so for profit).

We live in a society in which by law only a certain set of possible
corporate forms is available. Each has advantages and disadvantages.
I do not believe I was the only person who invested in TT with the
motives I had.

If anything, this complicates any purely economic analysis. Quite
frankly, if I were interested in profit alone any CRYONICS company
would have to argue very hard to get me to invest even a few dollars.
It's clear by now that cryonics has so far not been very profitable;
someday it may be, but if I want profit I'd go somewhere else where
the likelihood of profit seems greater ... and sooner.

I invested because I wished to live. In that sense, if we took a
poll of TT investors, we might well find pure profit motives rather
poorly represented. (At that time, Alcor existed but would not 
provide any services at all to anyone who did not live in southern
California). Moreover, to say that investors are all hard-core
cryonicists means that they will gauge the behavior of TT on other
than simple economic terms: that is, they are not investing for
profit.

Finally, yes, I do expect profit-making societies to enter cryonics
at some future time. However given the ability of societies to 
change their name, their constitution, and their purpose, it's still
not clear that we really need a profit-making society at this time.

Moreover, a "profit-making" society managed to achieve an end rather than
make a profit is an odd beast in itself. Perhaps in the end that is why
TT turned into an investment management business only: it didn't really
have a corporate structure suitable for the aims of its investors. If I
may guess at the motives of OTHER investors, they too wanted life, but
just in case cryonics proved to be profitable they also wanted the 
profits that might come with it. So far as I know, there is no such
corporate structure available under current law.

			Best and long long life,

				Thomas Donaldson

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=9751