[ExI] The Dogs of Immortality.

[Damien Broderick]

At 04:33 PM 7/9/2008 -0400, John K Clark wrote:

>Mr. RAY D. MADOFF thinks that the government has a God given
>right to take every bit of the money that you have earned, every
>fucking dime; and if in their infinite equanimity the regime deems
>to let you keep a little tiny bit of it

Well, no; if you bother to read what he actually 
wrote, you'll find that he's okay with the 
animals retaining $4.4 billion. His suggestion, 
which might be grotesquely outrageous but isn't "every bit of the money", is:

"There should be a limit ­ a dollar amount or a 
percentage of the estate ­ on the estate tax 
charitable deduction. People could still give to 
charity as they like, but after a point they 
would be giving after-tax dollars."

He doesn't specify what the point is, although he 
says that in this particular case "her fortune 
warranted an estate tax rate of 45 percent." The 
little tiny bit the dogs would get to keep is 
thus 55 percent of the current $8 billion donation.

In other words: railing against all and any tax 
as an outrage against man and reason is fine, but 
don't confuse what Prof. Maddog recommends with total confiscation.

His approach, even so, sounds like bad news for 
cryonics people hoping to fund their storage, revival and stake in the future.

Damien Broderick