Hey, I think this kind of detached cosmic impartiality (ah, the panorama of life, and death, the eternal circle, the beginning of the old "Ben Casey" TV series) would only be truly appropriate if we were all in the same boat on this planet, but we're not. The poor 80% are the ones doing the dying...dying of hunger and disease on a level the rich 20% of us left behind decades ago. When a rich person looks upon the suffering of the poor and muses, "Who am I to change that process?" I got an answer...if not you, then who? YOU'RE one of the ones hogging the resources, by virtue of living in the First World. But what do the rich use their copious resources for? Not to help the poor, but to enhance their lifestyles, yes, the Lifestyles of The Rich, which is what each and every one of *us* on this list lives, comparatively speaking, on a global scale. The vast majority of people on this planet have yet to make a telephone call, or turn on a water faucet, and to pretend this is somehow inevitable when the control of the planet's wealth is SO concentrated and standards of living are SO lopsided...I'm a rationalist, I like the scientific approach, but that doesn't mean I have no compassion. I believe in curiousity, in inquiry, in learning about the world, about using whatever tools humanity can come up with to do this, but this needs to be tempered *with* humanity. And in this context, it's really hard to justify spending gazillions, and monopolizing the talents of world-class researchers, so a few really really really rich people out of billions on this planet *might* become Steve Austin. Six million dollars wouldn't even begin to touch it, and I don't think any health insurance policy covers Voluntary Assimilation by the Borg.
"Who am I to change that process...when I can take all the massive resources under my control and use them to benefit myself? Why should I (shudder) *share* this planet's bounty fairly?" That is the true question posed here.