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["Jeanne Driese" <jeanne13 AT earthlink.net>]

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
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