Insurance companies are taking the risk of offering insurance. That is why they normally make money year after year after year.
When bad things happen, they take the hits. They take on some debt. They stop making profits… because they decided to purchase the risk from people. That’s the gig.
There is a middle ground here that doesn’t bone homeowners and doesn’t completely bone the insurance companies affected. They should be taking on debt and making zero profits until they pay it off. That’s not how things work here though, i’m sure they will be bailed out on taxpayer money or something… but what should probably happen is that they should be given a federal loan on pretty favorable terms, something like 1-2% interest, until it’s paid off.
At the same time standards for homes in areas at risk should be such that fire mitigation is mandated whenever a house changes hands. This will inevitably drive up costs, but again maybe this is another case for low/no interest rate loans to cover the changes. A billion or two today could save 25-100-500++ billion over a few years.
I am pretty close to the opinion that all private companies need to be abolished and absorbed by collective ownership. There are almost no instances where I can see greed being the secret ingredient that makes things run MORE smoothly.
Nearly all personal insurance should fundamentally be a government function. Insurance is principally there to assist you when shit goes south. This is also effectively one of the foundational reasons humans collect into societies. But we’ve let runaway American capitalism and abstracting money to the point where it is treated like a resource in an of itself rather than the allocation algorithm it is completely pervert our understanding of how government and private enterprise respectively should interact with society.
what you dont see is the bailouts when disasters happen. Insurance companies only take the hits for small fires. Not for big ones. The have always made money hand over fist.
Insurance companies are taking the risk of offering insurance. That is why they normally make money year after year after year.
When bad things happen, they take the hits. They take on some debt. They stop making profits… because they decided to purchase the risk from people. That’s the gig.
There is a middle ground here that doesn’t bone homeowners and doesn’t completely bone the insurance companies affected. They should be taking on debt and making zero profits until they pay it off. That’s not how things work here though, i’m sure they will be bailed out on taxpayer money or something… but what should probably happen is that they should be given a federal loan on pretty favorable terms, something like 1-2% interest, until it’s paid off.
At the same time standards for homes in areas at risk should be such that fire mitigation is mandated whenever a house changes hands. This will inevitably drive up costs, but again maybe this is another case for low/no interest rate loans to cover the changes. A billion or two today could save 25-100-500++ billion over a few years.
I am pretty close to the opinion that all private companies need to be abolished and absorbed by collective ownership. There are almost no instances where I can see greed being the secret ingredient that makes things run MORE smoothly.
Louder for the people on the back, please!
There doesn’t need to be a middle ground. Most developed countries do fine with universal healthcare.
You’re not incorrect, though his comment seems specifically targeted at home owners insurance.
Again, that could be government-sponsored.
Nearly all personal insurance should fundamentally be a government function. Insurance is principally there to assist you when shit goes south. This is also effectively one of the foundational reasons humans collect into societies. But we’ve let runaway American capitalism and abstracting money to the point where it is treated like a resource in an of itself rather than the allocation algorithm it is completely pervert our understanding of how government and private enterprise respectively should interact with society.
Help, my house is sick and needs a doctor!
As I already said, the exact same thing can apply to housing insurance.
Yeah but that isn’t as funny as thinking about a house being sick :(
I’m at the point where i’m just trying to make light of as much as I can.
what you dont see is the bailouts when disasters happen. Insurance companies only take the hits for small fires. Not for big ones. The have always made money hand over fist.
Insurance companies are typically reinsured themselves, so it’s entities like Lloyd’s of London that will ultimately be paying for this.