Just to clarify, I never mentioned aid. What's rational does of course depends on what axioms you have. I guess its not obvious, so I'll explain my thinking.

Just to clarify, I never mentioned aid. What's rational does of course depends on what axioms you have. I guess its not obvious, so I'll explain my thinking. I think there are two broad scenarios. Scenario 1: You care about increasing well-being and life-expectancy globally in the system. In which case the money better spent making those who currently die young, live longer. After all, if nothing else, it is extremely inefficient to have all those people dying in their prime. Scenario 2: You care solely about increasing your own well-being, and not about whats best for the group. In which case, you'll keep your money to yourself, and try freeload off other peoples investment in longevity research. Because, unless you are exceedingly wealthy, your contributions will make very little difference to the overall research effort, but will make a very large difference to you. (Maybe you get sick, or circumstances change; for most people, their money has higher utility kept for such circumstances, than donated to a common research effort).