AIG Down in flames... Discuss!

Yeah, like I said, in the text you even took the time to quote, Health insurance gives it a bad rap. And like I said, that's just a very small part of it (health insurance is a miniscule piece of the pie). They suck, that's a given. But seeing as how AIG isn't even in the health insurance industry it isn't even relevant now is it...

It was probably lost in my ranting, the other facets of insurance shouldn't be necessary. They area relatively recent addition (in the grand scheme of things) I view it as a fault of the way our system has evolved. Certainly the economy would exist without insurance, as you stated you are in the industry, so its not exactly an unbiased look at things. My view of the average insurance agency is that as a bookie, but I have much more respect for bookies. I'm telling you we need a dictator to set us back on course.

It was probably lost in my ranting, the other facets of insurance shouldn't be necessary. They area relatively recent addition (in the grand scheme of things) I view it as a fault of the way our system has evolved. Certainly the economy would exist without insurance, as you stated you are in the industry, so its not exactly an unbiased look at things. My view of the average insurance agency is that as a bookie, but I have much more respect for bookies. I'm telling you we need a dictator to set us back on course.

 

The 14th century is relatively recent?! o_O

Hell, some would argue it goes back since the Greeks and Romans.

 

I'm telling you man, it's been a cornerstone of the Western Economy for over 600 years. Businesses would find it hard to survive without it. To do business without insurance would be like doing business without banks.

Edited September 18, 2008 by Hykos

The bad part about insurance companies is that they are a company with investors. They are obligated to protect their investor's money so as a result they are obligated to screw people out of claims.

The 14th century is relatively recent?! o_O

Hell, some would argue it goes back since the Greeks and Romans.

 

I'm telling you man, it's been a cornerstone of the Western Economy for over 600 years. Businesses would find it hard to survive without it. To do business without insurance would be like doing business without banks.

I was going to say - Insurance has been around for a long time!

 

From Wikipedia:

 

History of insurance

 

In some sense we can say that insurance appears simultaneously with the appearance of human society. We know of two types of economies in human societies: money economies (with markets, money, financial instruments and so on) and non-money or natural economies (without money, markets, financial instruments and so on). The second type is a more ancient form than the first. In such an economy and community, we can see insurance in the form of people helping each other. For example, if a house burns down, the members of the community help build a new one. Should the same thing happen to one's neighbour, the other neighbours must help. Otherwise, neighbours will not receive help in the future. This type of insurance has survived to the present day in some countries where modern money economy with its financial instruments is not widespread (for example countries in the territory of the former Soviet Union).

 

Turning to insurance in the modern sense (i.e., insurance in a modern money economy, in which insurance is part of the financial sphere), early methods of transferring or distributing risk were practised by Chinese and Babylonian traders as long ago as the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC, respectively. Chinese merchants travelling treacherous river rapids would redistribute their wares across many vessels to limit the loss due to any single vessel's capsizing. The Babylonians developed a system which was recorded in the famous Code of Hammurabi, c. 1750 BC, and practised by early Mediterranean sailing merchants. If a merchant received a loan to fund his shipment, he would pay the lender an additional sum in exchange for the lender's guarantee to cancel the loan should the shipment be stolen.

 

Achaemenian monarchs of Iran were the first to insure their people and made it official by registering the insuring process in governmental notary offices. The insurance tradition was performed each year in Norouz (beginning of the Iranian New Year); the heads of different ethnic groups as well as others willing to take part, presented gifts to the monarch. The most important gift was presented during a special ceremony. When a gift was worth more than 10,000 Derrik (Achaemenian gold coin) the issue was registered in a special office. This was advantageous to those who presented such special gifts. For others, the presents were fairly assessed by the confidants of the court. Then the assessment was registered in special offices.

 

The purpose of registering was that whenever the person who presented the gift registered by the court was in trouble, the monarch and the court would help him. Jahez, a historian and writer, writes in one of his books on ancient Iran: "[W]henever the owner of the present is in trouble or wants to construct a building, set up a feast, have his children married, etc. the one in charge of this in the court would check the registration. If the registered amount exceeded 10,000 Derrik, he or she would receive an amount of twice as much."[1]

 

A thousand years later, the inhabitants of Rhodes invented the concept of the 'general average'. Merchants whose goods were being shipped together would pay a proportionally divided premium which would be used to reimburse any merchant whose goods were jettisoned during storm or sinkage.

 

Some cool stuff there