More On Wealth And Longevity
FuturePundit has a good followup to recent discussions of the effects of great wealth on longevity. The bad news for billionaires is that "they can't buy much better medical care. They are super rich. They can buy any medical treatments available. But the same incurable diseases that kill most people in industrialized countries kill billionaires as well. The billionaires not only can't take it with them but they also can't use it to substantially delay their departure into the afterlife. There are limits to their buying power because of the deficiencies in our scientific knowledge about human biology. ... The lesson here for the billionaires is that if they want to extend their lives the best use of their own wealth is to fund more research and development aimed at developing better treatments."