| > Yes, the insurance company expects to, on average, get more money from insuring my house than the cost of any damage to it. > This is why I don't buy insurance or extended warranty for anything I can pay to replace. Yes, yet you're forgetting that this is only possible for privileged knowledge workers, as well as capitalists. That group of knowledge workers, specifically, is only a tiny percent of the working class overall (all those who are paid in wages, and who do not own capital such as land, machines or intellectual property, etc.), especially when you include both the working class in the global north as well as the global south. For a lot of 'non -knowledge worker' working class people this threshold of affordability, for being able to buy a replacement when something breaks etc., is much much lower. They are forced to live paycheck to paycheck, and do not have the financial security available for emergencies. Add to this equation the parasitic American credit card industry, and the toxic culture of excessive credit card spending they have created (which is reinforced and perversely rewarded by the US' shoddy credit rating system, no less) and your hypothetical scenario starts to crumble under the weight of the reality of the capitalist exploitation that the US working class has to deal with in the US today. In other words, yes, you might be able to replace your iGadgets because you're cash flow positive due to your privileged position and ability to withstand the manipulation described above, yet many really cannot, by no fault of their own. I am excited for the open protocol, cooperative, insurance/saving pools/mutual credit funds that are emerging; such as what is used in Enspiral circles (CoBudget.co) [1] and elsewhere, which allow small groups of people to build financial resiliency together without the ultra-financialized, rentierist capitalist insurance industry in the middle. Another exciting alternative/example/experiment is the unemployment insurance circles in the Netherlands, called Broodfonds (translates to 'Bread-fund'). [1] https://medium.com/enspiral-tales/grow-your-own-economy-in-a... |