X-Message-Number: 1051 Date: 23 Jul 92 01:12:15 EDT From: Steve Bridge <> Subject: re #1043: Begging RE: #1043: Begging for donations Steve Harris criticizes Charles Platt's suggestions for better business planning to interest rich donors by, in effect, arguing that wealthy people are basically bad candidates for involvement. He suggests that we should treat wealthy members no better than poor members, and if the wealthy catch on, fine. I agree with what Steve says, but for entirely different reasons. I think we SHOULD treat wealthy members better than we do -- but I think that we should treat ALL members better than we do. There is nothing wrong with reasonable business plans and with telling people what their contributions will be used for. Well thought-out research proposals will win more attention and funding from ANYONE than vague pleas to "please give us some research money, will you, huh?" This is just common business sense. All of the members deserve this much respect. Steve Harris may be making a hasty judgement in lumping Mr. Laughlin in with the other wealthy men he has known. If Steve's only evidence of Mr. Laughlin's lack of understanding of and commitment to cryonics is the situation with the proposed building purchase in Phoenix, then he must believe that Charles Platt and I, among others, equally lack this commitment, since we also did not offer money for the purchase. Since I have only met Mr. Laughlin once, I cannot say whether he is the typical "rich, greedy" person or not. I agree with Steve's points about not putting great amounts of energy or faith in the contributions of very rich people, and cryonics history certainly suggests caution in this regard. But there is no reason to immediately evaluate any person by the actions of persons in the past. Each person, even a rich one, deserves the opportunity to be judged as an individual. Steve Bridge Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=1051