http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Benjamin_Franklin_by_Joseph-Siffred_Duplessis.jpg
The super-rich have already demonstrated that paying taxes is no longer a certainty, so far as they are concerned.
General Electric paid no US taxes in 2010:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/general-electric-paid-federal-taxes-2010/story?id=13224558
Nitt Romney, who wants to be our president, keeps $30 million tax free in the Cayman Islands:
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/politics/2012-election/mitt-romney-keeps-30-million-tax-free-cayman-islands#
Will the super-rich also eliminate the certainty of death one of these days?
So far, their life expectancies don't seem to outpace the rest of us by very much:
"The average age of death for the 20 billionaires featured in the 2004 and 2005 "In Memoriam" sections of the annualForbes Billionaires list was 78. We compared this number with the average male life expectancy in the U.S., since all but one of the 20 billionaires on our list that died were males: the billionaires lived 3.5 years longer than average American males. The results would be even more dramatic if we took into account average life expectancies from around the world, since the billionaires on our list are of all different nationalities."
More: http://www.forbes.com/2005/04/05/cx_vg_0405feat.html
But could that change?
A Cambridge University geneticist has predicted, “The first person to live to be 1,000 years old is certainly alive today …whether they realize it or not, barring accidents and suicide, most people now 40 years or younger can expect to live for centuries.”
More: http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/03/can-humans-live.html
Scientists who believe this are pinning their hopes on ways of slowing, stopping or even reversing aging.
One doctor who disputes this theory has stated, "“I just don't think [immortality] is possible. Aubrey and the others who talk of greatly extending lifespan are oversimplifying the science and just don't understand the magnitude of the task. His plan will not succeed. Were it to do so, it would undermine what it means to be human.”
That last sentence makes an interesting point. Sci-Fi Writer William Gibson makes the same point in his novel, "Count Zero."
http://www.amazon.com/Count-Sprawl-Trilogy-William-Gibson/dp/1611062101
Gibson's heroin, Marly, is summoned to a job interview with a billionaire, who left behind is corporal body for a vat in which his consciousness abides. Marly enters a booth, dons head gear, and is transported to a virtual world in which she meets the reincarnated billionaire on a park bench.
"And, for an instant, she stared directly into those soft blues eyes and knew, with mammalian certainty, that the exceedingly rich were no longer even remotely human." (Ace Sci Fi Edition, Page 16)
Two things seem to me to be as certain as death and taxes, where this topic is concerned:
1. Scientists will keep on trying to extend life, and
2. Any breakthrough will be limited to the elite.
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