6 replies to this topic

[The Immortalist]

Why does cryonics cost so much? Why would they charge about $150000 to preserve someone? It seems to me from my limited knowledge about this that they are just preying on peoples fear of death and that they charge an extremely high price because they know people who care enough will pay anything to try and save themselves.

Here is something I read about the price of cryonics.

http://forum.rickros...12,64749,page=1

: So this is what has drawn the professional SALESMEN like a David Pizer into the cryonics business. he is a businessman, and appears to be part of a family owned car upholstery shop? (see below). They know MASSIVE profit-margins when they see them, especially connected to tax-free religions, ability to buy/sell/develop land, capital gains exemptions, write-downs, etc. (if you want to get rich quicker, start a religion, its a gold mine, Venturism is a cryonics religion).
It could be that the profit-margin for a cryonics freezing is well over 500%. Even if it cost 20K total, and they charged 150K, that is 700%. That does not include all of the other financial schemes they are running on top of this, like with the trusts.
So the actual cost is something that needs to be figured out by honest people.

Why do they charge what they charge? Because that is how much life-insurance pays-out with a small monthly payment. Its marketing, all they have to do is convince people to pay $30-40 a month, to start, and then they start the upselling process.
The bottom line is the few main players in the business of cryonics, see it as a business opportunity to possibly become the worlds first cryonics billionaires. If they can make it into a Baby Boomer trend, and take a bit of the funeral business, they can make a fortune in that niche.
If they can find a few guys who are superrich, who turn over millions/billions to them at death, then they are set. That clearly is the ultimate goal, to build multibillion dollar cryonics companies, which are controlled by groups like the Church of Venturism, and tax-exempt religions. Its the same model as Scientology, and all these other sects.
Its amazing that more people in the cryonics biz refuse to see that reality, they are just blinded by their beliefs and close their minds to the facts. Of course, the guys running it make a very serious effort to conceal that reality, as one can see in their own writings.

Below is a public listing from Cortera Business Research Reports, of course it may not be accurate.
________________________________________
[start.cortera.com]
PIZER FAMILY INVESTMENTS INC is in the Top, Body, and Upholstery Repair Shops and Paint Shops industry in PHOENIX, AZ. This company currently has approximately 10 to 20 employees and annual sales of $500,000 to $999,999.

Contact Information
***** N CAVE CREEK RD
PHOENIX, AZ

Key Facts
Location Type: Single Location
Industry: Top, Body, and Upholstery Repair Shops and Paint Shops
Year Founded: 1992
Sales Range: $500,000 to $999,999
Employees: 10 to 20
People at this Company
Name Title
DAVID PIZER PRESIDENT
_________________________________

Can someone please shed some light to me on this?

Edited by The MILE/The Immortalist, 11 July 2010 - 02:11 PM.

[The Immortalist]

Where can I find out how much it actually costs to run the cryonics facilities?

[The Immortalist]

I just found this comprehensive list of all the costs involved with cryonics. It's no wonder they charge so much http://www.alcor.org...onicsTables.txt . The cost of supplying enough liquid nitrogen is about $66 a year so I think it's justified Alcor charges $150,000 because they may need to keep the bodies frozen for more than 1000 years and 1000 times $66 is $66000. So people, don't complain about the cost, they need the money to keep you preserved for possibly thousands of years.

Edited by The MILE/The Immortalist, 11 July 2010 - 09:18 PM.

[David Styles]

Where can I find out how much it actually costs to run the cryonics facilities?

CI's annual financial reports are all available on their website:

http://www.cryonics....financials.html

[Luke Parrish]

I just found this comprehensive list of all the costs involved with cryonics. It's no wonder they charge so much http://www.alcor.org...onicsTables.txt . The cost of supplying enough liquid nitrogen is about $66 a year so I think it's justified Alcor charges $150,000 because they may need to keep the bodies frozen for more than 1000 years and 1000 times $66 is $66000. So people, don't complain about the cost, they need the money to keep you preserved for possibly thousands of years.

Yeah you are trading money for risk to some degree if you go with CI. Also CI does not plan to need to cover your reanimation costs to such a great extent. This makes some sense as future society will be morally obligated to cover emergency medicine for living patients (and unlike today's society they will know you are a living patient) but it also makes sense to be on the safe side. Perhaps Alcor will pay for initial R&D and CI will benefit from that once it has been done, so their members do not get the benefit as soon. Both of these companies are nonprofit.

[Logan]

I just found this comprehensive list of all the costs involved with cryonics. It's no wonder they charge so much http://www.alcor.org...onicsTables.txt . The cost of supplying enough liquid nitrogen is about $66 a year so I think it's justified Alcor charges $150,000 because they may need to keep the bodies frozen for more than 1000 years and 1000 times $66 is $66000. So people, don't complain about the cost, they need the money to keep you preserved for possibly thousands of years.

I doubt it's going to be necessary to be preserved for thousands of years, more like hundreds.

[bgwowk]

The breakdown of how Alcor's present minimum funding level is apportioned for various purposes is here:

http://www.alcor.org.../scheduleA.html

There's a complicating factor in cryonics costs, which is that in most cases people are signing up for cryopreservation that they'll need decades in the future when inflation has made the procedures much more expensive. Cryopreservation minimums in the 1980s were expensive of those days, but now Alcor takes losses on every case it does for members who signed up in the 1980s.