Term life insurance is not the only type available. Most people who get term life insurance plan on having enough money saved up by the time the term runs out. Whole life insurance has no change in premium for the entire lifetime of the insured.
All these benefits come with a guarantee that your premium won’t change. The basic premium you agree to now will remain the same throughout the life of your policy.
So umm… yeah. That’s how life insurance usually works.
ETA: This is the first time I’ve heard, “life insurance doesn’t work” as an objection to cryonics.
And what are their premiums? They simply have to be far higher than form 25 year old’s 20 year term life insurance if their business is to make any profits. The only low premiums I’ve seen so far are for young people’s term life insurance, which people keep naively extrapolating ignoring aging.
I’m really disappointed that this supposedly rational community keeps failing basic math. The entire “cryonics is cheap” argument relies on failing basic math.
Remember that a lot of people who get life insurance policies cancel them before they die, or fall on hard times and can’t pay the premiums. I’m 24 and healthy. I went the more expensive route and got whole life insurance, so my premiums are $64/month. With Alcor dues I end up spending about a grand per year on cryonics. Did I mention I picked what is basically the most expensive option? (Alcor whole body preservation with whole life insurance). You could easily cut that down to $300/year if you went with CI and term life insurance.
$64 * 12 * 50 = $38,400, which is a bit less than the policy of $200k. If that money were invested every month, it would end up being significantly more than the policy amount.
Term life insurance is not a bad idea for most people. Lots of people save up money over their careers. $80,000 is barely a down payment on a condo in the bay area.
I’m really disappointed that this supposedly rational community keeps failing basic math. The entire “cryonics is cheap” argument relies on failing basic math.
$80,000 plus $500 a year in membership dues is cheap. (Alcor). I can multiply, divide and find various integrals and derivatives of those figures if it makes you happy. Perhaps it is my English skills that are my flaw? You dispute my understanding of ‘cheap’?
80k is for neuro-preservation, full body is 150k. Neither of them counts as “cheap” by any definition of “cheap”. It’s also at least an order of magnitude more expensive than what Eliezer keeps talking about ($300/year).
This reference says it’s much more if you include all costs:
The Cryonics Institute charges $28,000 for perfusion and storage of an Lifetime Member and $35,000 for a Yearly Member. [...] For service more comparable to what Alcor provides — including Standby and Transport — a Lifetime Member pays $88,000 and a Yearly Member pays $95,000. For details on CI pricing see Membership and Details Concerning SA Standby and Transport for CI Members.
Neither of them counts as “cheap” by any definition of “cheap”.
Dollars per expected day of life extension. Applying the same definition to other health investments makes cryonics the ‘cheap’ option. I agree that this is probably not the definition used by some advocates.
It’s also at least an order of magnitude more expensive than what Eliezer keeps talking about ($300/year).
The $300/year is supposed to be the insurance rate for a $100k policy, but I agree—that is not cheap. I am likely to make enough money to afford it if I stay on my current career plan (mechanical engineering), but it’s not a negligible sum.
Term life insurance is not the only type available. Most people who get term life insurance plan on having enough money saved up by the time the term runs out. Whole life insurance has no change in premium for the entire lifetime of the insured.
And where are quotes for that, proving my point again?
You asked before and I replied:
Downvoted for going against taw’s Outside the influence of evidence View?
And what are their premiums? They simply have to be far higher than form 25 year old’s 20 year term life insurance if their business is to make any profits. The only low premiums I’ve seen so far are for young people’s term life insurance, which people keep naively extrapolating ignoring aging.
I’m really disappointed that this supposedly rational community keeps failing basic math. The entire “cryonics is cheap” argument relies on failing basic math.
Again, I replied in the very same thread I linked to.
Term life insurance is not a bad idea for most people. Lots of people save up money over their careers. $80,000 is barely a down payment on a condo in the bay area.
I should note that most of the organizations we are talking about (Alcor, ACS, CI) are non-profits.
$80,000 plus $500 a year in membership dues is cheap. (Alcor). I can multiply, divide and find various integrals and derivatives of those figures if it makes you happy. Perhaps it is my English skills that are my flaw? You dispute my understanding of ‘cheap’?
80k is for neuro-preservation, full body is 150k. Neither of them counts as “cheap” by any definition of “cheap”. It’s also at least an order of magnitude more expensive than what Eliezer keeps talking about ($300/year).
CI is $50K for whole-body.
This reference says it’s much more if you include all costs:
28,000 means enough vitrification solution for neuro
I thought their current website said $30K, if you don’t contract for standby services?
That’s not including the cost of transportation to CI.
Oh.
Dollars per expected day of life extension. Applying the same definition to other health investments makes cryonics the ‘cheap’ option. I agree that this is probably not the definition used by some advocates.
Yes. (Well, if you use binary or base 4.)
The $300/year is supposed to be the insurance rate for a $100k policy, but I agree—that is not cheap. I am likely to make enough money to afford it if I stay on my current career plan (mechanical engineering), but it’s not a negligible sum.