Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

homestead - Re: [Homestead] Insurance--a homesteader's viewpoint

homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Homestead mailing list

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Jeanne Driese" <jeanne13 AT earthlink.net>
  • To: <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Insurance--a homesteader's viewpoint
  • Date: Sun, 6 Apr 2008 06:45:14 -0400

My Thoughts,

Due to some foolish happenings on my part during a divorce I have no income
other than my Social Security, which is my only health insurance too. My
theory on that is like James, keep moving and eat healthy and you wil not
need medical insurance. My house is on a dear friends of mine's property so
leagaly I don't own it. Because I want to be able to replace my few
possions, like my computer, I carry renters insurance for $15.00 per month on
the contents of my house. It is just common sense as by the time my
volunteer fire department comes 5 miles and carries a hose up my 47 steps
there will be nothing left to water down. That is my only insurance other
than car which I have to have by law, but, on these narrow winding roads
where most folks drive down the middle I would have that even if it was not
the law!
Jeanne
tnhillwoman
North East TN zone 6
----- Original Message -----
From: Gene GeRue
To: Homestead
Sent: Saturday, April 05, 2008 4:46 PM
Subject: [Homestead] Insurance--a homesteader's viewpoint


While reading William Safire's column titled "Moral Hazard,"* which
introduction relates to the Bear Sterns bailout or financial market
saver--your choice--this statement stopped me in my eye tracks: "There
are still those who mutter that burglary insurance discourages people
from locking their doors, but the idea of all kinds of insurance —
purchased by individuals or given by government — seems to have caught
on."

I'm sure that Safire is correct: the concept of insurance, in its
myriad manifestations, does indeed seem to have caught on. I know
people, and so do you, who pay thousands of dollars each year to
"insure" their health, their homes, their lives, their furniture,
their potential liability. If not now, no doubt there soon will be
insurance to insure that your insurers pay off on your legitimate
insurance claims.

While I was raising my daughters, I paid for so-called health
insurance, even though I already deemed it to be in fact disease
insurance. I wanted to be sure to be able to take care of any of their
needs that might arise. Today, I have property insurance on the
Phoenix house because it is required by the lender; I have vehicular
insurance because it is required by law and there are a lot of bad
drivers out there and others who would happily take my property and
bankrupt me if the opportunity arose.

On Heartwood, there is no insurance of any kind. This is my sanctuary;
this is where I make my stand; this is where I live my values
regardless of what the world thinks of me. And yet . . . I know there
are those who, while visiting, if they stumbled and fell over their
own feet and cracked their skulls, might well seek a lawyer to help
them take from me all that I have.

Insurance companies make big profits. They own big buildings in big
cities. Their CEOs own third homes on the Mediterranean. I don't know
if they still enjoy the immense tax advantages they acquired back when
insurance was a new concept and when insurance companies convinced
politicians that they needed help through tax exemptions to become
strong enough to help those policy holders who against all odds
justified their right to a payoff. I do know that insurance is very
big business in the land of the free.

Beyond the dollar cost, it seems to me that insurance is an aberration
of modernity. It is proof that we are uncivilized, irresponsible,
fearful, and probably that there are just too damn many lawyers
looking for work.

What are your thoughts on the issue of insurance?


*http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/magazine/06wwln-safire-t.html?ref=magazine
_______________________________________________
Homestead list and subscription:
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/homestead
Change your homestead list member options:
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/options/homestead/jeanne13%40earthlink.net
View the archives at:
https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/homestead




--
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG.
Version: 7.5.519 / Virus Database: 269.22.6/1360 - Release Date: 4/4/2008
6:02 PM





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page