Im not advocating sitting by idling. I just think it reflects our innate priorities when we put so much effort into extending our own lives when it doesn't take as much effort to greatly extend someone else's life who is less resourced than I am.
http://www.americanpetproducts.org/press_industrytrends.asp
We spend billions on bottled water:
http://www.businessweek.com/debateroom/archives/2008/09/bott...
Shouldn't we drink tap water and use the money saved to get water to people in need?
Bill Gates had this to say: "It seems pretty egocentric while we still have malaria and TB for rich people to fund things so they can live longer. It would be nice to live longer though I admit"
Not the authoritative word on the issue but interesting considering he has the opportunity to do either yet is focussing on malaria, TB etc
http://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities
By doing really difficult and expensive medical research over decades, we will discover many things that help many of the 7 billion people, increasing to 9 billion, on the planet. Knowledge isn't something that stays locked up forever, and which only rich people have access to it.
Age related research will benefit over 10 billion people in this century. Most of us will get old.