[ExI] Transhumanism and Politics

[spike]

> Chris Hibbert
> Subject: Re: [ExI] Transhumanism and Politics
> 
> > Imagine the US goes for Michael Moore's idea and removes all profit 
> > motive from all things medical.  All the medical technology stocks 
> > plummet, investors take the cash elsewhere.  How then does progress 
> > come about?
> 
> Umm.  When the stocks plummet, the money disappears.  Some 
> investors get their money out, but only at the cost of others 
> buying their stocks (at full or partial rates) and either the 
> investor just before the announcement or the remaining 
> investor after actually lost money that didn't reappear anywhere else...
> Chris


Well sure Chris, this is a common modern view but it almost makes investing
in stocks sound like a zero sum game.  When one invests in a company by
buying it's stock, that company turns that money into more money.  With the
profits, the company, in a few cases, pays the stockholders directly, or
much more commonly, buys up its own stock, thereby paying dividends in the
form of rising stock values.

In the field of medical technology and life extention technology, I can
imagine profits unlike anything seen to date.  We must loose the wild horses
of capitalism to do their MAGIC as only capitalism can do!  At every
opportunity, make things happen by making things profitable.  Technology
that is market driven is driven indeed.  Profits make good things happen.  

There are those who argue that medical technology is the one area that
should not be motivated by profit.  With these I disagree.  Medical
technology is exactly the area where technology must be driven at the
greatest possible urgency, for our lives depend upon it.  Profits are our
friends.

spike