Having been a life member (# 463) since the very early days when life membership was first offered I would like to "point out" that, "back then", life membership wasn't "that cheap". In "today's dollars", not "absolute dollars", is a pretty staggering sum!
Based on the consumer price index, the $50 that I spent for my life membership back around 1970 is today the equivalent of right at $3300! That is 66 times in "absolute dollars". Compare that to the present life membership fee of $880. That means that we who obtained our life memberships back in the early 1970s paid 3.75 times what new life members are paying. If you don't believe these figures then do the calculations on the following website: http://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/ However, the cash influx to AMSAT, at the time, was definitely needed and the benefits from the life membership fees of today's "olde tymers" allowed AMSAT to accomplish a lot of things which would not have been possible without the influx of cash. Therefore, I caution those who think that life members are getting a "free ride" to stop and think about the true situation. If it had not been for the "olde tyme" life membership fees the organization would not be what it is today IF the organization was still in existence! We "olde tymers" happily paid a premium (when compared with the present value of the dollar) to support the organization. Today, many of us are on "fixed incomes" and without our life memberships many of us would not be able to afford continuing our memberships. "When the going was tough, the tough got going" and contributed a significant amount of money in terms of what the dollar is worth today. The result is that we "paid our dues" (pun intended) and AMSAT is still benefiting from our monentary contributions today. We made an investment in the organization and we certainly deserve to "reap" any benefits from that investment. Glen, K9STH AMSAT 239/LM 463 Website: http://k9sth.com _______________________________________________ Sent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
