So, let that be a lesson to folks with an “edifice complex” in cryonics: big structures take BIG MONEY to maintain and they suck it up continuously and at a truly gargantuan rate. I feel quite certain that whatever its advertising benefits, the Abbey is not making many converts to the Church of England. It is an amazing place, but it probably attracts more deists, agnostics, atheists, the merely curious and the intellectuals of other faiths than anything else, primarily because it is the resting place for many of the world’s greatest heretics. It’s really ironic when you think of it, that Newton and Darwin are buried there, and that there is now a stained glass window commemorating Britain’s greatest faggot: Oscar Wilde.

So, one reason they charge is because they have to, not because they can. Other monies come from a grab bag of sources: some from church owned real estate, some from the UK government (the Church of England is the state religion in the UK), some from charitable giving, some from foundations and trusts dedicated to the preservation of history and architecture, and so on. And of course, there is what in the accounting world is called “cash or cash equivalents.” Both of these institutions have huge cash reserves. You may remember the big scandal some years back about the Vatican bank, Banco Ambrosiano, or more properly, “The Institute for Works of Religion” (IOR) the bank’s principal share-holder. Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, head of the IOR from 1971 to 1989, was indicted in Italy in 1982 as an accessory in the $3.5 billion collapse of Banco Ambrosiano, which was accused of laundering drug money for the Sicilian Mafia which used Propaganda Due (“P2″), a mobbed-up Masonic lodge as an intermediary. P2 and its “Worshipful Master,” Licio Gelli, were also involved in providing cash to right wing terror groups during the 1970s. Archbishop Marcinkus miraculously escaped trial using the shield of diplomatic immunity. He fled to the US, where he lived in the in the Sun City retirement community in southern Arizona until his death in 2006.

This scandal is still ongoing as of last year http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/22/world/europe/22vatican.html . Roberto Calvi, “God’s Banker,” was found hanging (dead) under Blackfriar’s bridge in London. The positioning of the body was in keeping with Masonic ritual for dealing with traitors; P2 was also known as the “Blackfriar’s.” The Calvi hit was almost certainly for embezzling money from Banco Ambrosiano that was owed to him and the Mafia. It is quite credibly claimed that the Mafia wanted to stop Calvi from disclosing that Banco Ambrosiano had been used for money laundering with the full knowledge and consent of the Church. In the Italian trial that resulted, it was stated that Calvi’s killing was arranged in Poland, which may seem very strange until you realize that a large chunk of the money that funded the Solidarity trade union movement was provided on instructions from Pope John Paul II. This left the Vatican in an itchy position, since THEY were likely getting money from right wing groups all over the world, and probably from the CIA and countless business interests that wanted to see Eastern Europe opened up to the West.

So, never forget that institutions that survive for hundreds of years do so because they SAVE. They relentlessly accumulate capital, and they use it strategically to further their interests. THAT sometimes makes for strange bedfellows. The Vatican, the Mafia, Solidarity, the CIA, Spanish bankers, Western nation-states, corporate scions… —Mike Darwin

I imagine they derive financial stability from owning real estate free and clear.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/paul-rudd-boards-errol-morris-210432

Of course that assumes that Liechtenstein’s government would act in good faith in the first place. Apparently some cryonicist managed to piss off the government there and he had to get a court decision to force it to accept reanimation trusts. Yeah, smart move to introduce yourself to a county with a population about the size of Prescott’s, where everyone in the ruling elite knows each other, and many of them probably show up at the same family gatherings.

I think a lot of it is sound financial management. How do long-lived institutions such as the Vatican and Westminster Abbey invest their money? What about some of the long-lived banks in Switzerland and Isle of Man? Some of them have been around for 200 years. How do they invest their money?

As you may or may not know, all of the “developed” country’s governments have debt problems. How will this work itself out over the next 50 years or so? How do we preserve and grow our money through such a mess?