Author Topic: Mutual Aid Society vs Insurance [BLOG POST]  (Read 2272 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Pheonike

Wouldn't it be nice if there was oh say a bond market that's the funds could be put into to gain a modest return? Where could this been market be...

Offline btstip

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 644
    • View Profile
  • BitShares: btstip-io
Hey 38PTSWarrior, here are the results of your tips...
Curious about ShareBits? Visit us at http://sharebits.io and start tipping BTS on https://bitsharestalk.org/ today!
Created by hybridd

38PTSWarrior

  • Guest
#sharebits “bytemaster“ 1 CHATEAUX

100% MAS support!

Offline xeroc

  • Board Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 12922
  • ChainSquad GmbH
    • View Profile
    • ChainSquad GmbH
  • BitShares: xeroc
  • GitHub: xeroc
another thing worth a thought is how to incentivize inspectors ... could they be 'paid' by the society as well? Either on a per claim basis, a subscription model or maybe as a 'society worker'?

Offline Akado

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2752
    • View Profile
  • BitShares: akado
Dan have you read this? It's relatively small and also has an approach on some kind of decentralized Insurance. Basically everything relies on reputation. I think ultimately this would be a MAS, since everything is based on your reputation. Seems an interesting and curious approach
https://mises.org/library/chaos-theory

II. INSURANCE
The contractual system described above seems to work well,
except for one nagging problem: How can people afford to pay
these outrageous fines? Granted, someone might sign a piece of
paper, pledging restitution to his employer if he is caught stealing.

But suppose he steals anyway, and is found guilty by the arbitration
agency, but has no money. Then what?
Well, how does our present system of auto damages work? Right
now, if I sideswipe someone, I must pay a stiff penalty. Or rather,
my insurance company does.
It would be the same way with all torts and crimes under the
system I’ve described. An insurance company would act as a guarantor
(or co-signer) of a client’s contracts with various firms. Just
as a bank uses experts to take depositors’ money and efficiently
allocate it to borrowers, so too would the experts at the insurance
company determine the risk of a certain client (i.e., the likelihood
he or she would violate contracts by stealing or killing) and
charge an appropriate premium. Thus, other firms wouldn’t have
to keep tabs on all of their customers and employees; the firms’
only responsibility would be to make sure everyone they dealt with
carried a policy with a reputable insurance agency.
Under this system, the victims of a crime are always paid, immediately.
(Contrast this to the government system, where victims
usually get nothing except the satisfaction of seeing the criminal
placed behind bars.) There would also be incentives for people to
behave responsibly. Just as reckless drivers pay higher premiums
for car insurance, so too would repeat offenders be charged higher
premiums for their contract insurance.
And why would the person with criminal proclivities care about
his insurance company? Well, if he stopped paying his premiums,
his coverage would be dropped. With no one to underwrite his
contractual obligations, such a person would make a very poor customer
or employee. People wouldn’t hire him or trust him to browse
through a china shop, since there would be no “legal” recourse if
he did anything “criminal.” In order to get by in society, it would
be extremely useful to keep one’s insurance coverage by always
paying the premiums. And that means it would be in one’s great
interest to refrain from criminal activity, since that would be the
way to keep premiums down.

Admittedly, such arguments seem fanciful. But they are no more
farfetched than the modern credit card system. People have huge
lines of credit advanced to them, sometimes only by filling out a
form, and it is extremely easy to engage in credit card fraud. A prodigal
may run up a huge bill and simply refuse to pay it, yet in most
cases nothing physical will happen to him. But most people don’t
behave in such an irresponsible manner, because they don’t want to
ruin their credit history. If they do, they know they’ll forever more
be cut off from this wonderful tool of the capitalist society.
https://metaexchange.info | Bitcoin<->Altcoin exchange | Instant | Safe | Low spreads

Offline pc

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1530
    • View Profile
    • Bitcoin - Perspektive oder Risiko?
  • BitShares: cyrano
You are implying that the 30% administrative overhead is caused by insurance companies. I think that is a misinterpretation and that the 30% number given in the referenced article includes the administrative overhead for example in hospitals as well.

For comparison: the health insurance that I use has an administrative overhead of 1.4%, and it actually pays out more than 100% of what the members pay in (thanks to the revenue generated from investing their reserves). German article: http://www.geld-magazin.info/debeka-krankenversicherung/
Bitcoin - Perspektive oder Risiko? ISBN 978-3-8442-6568-2 http://bitcoin.quisquis.de

Offline xeroc

  • Board Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 12922
  • ChainSquad GmbH
    • View Profile
    • ChainSquad GmbH
  • BitShares: xeroc
  • GitHub: xeroc
Its important to realize that you are focusing on the U.S. here but many more countires with different rules exist aswell!

Offline bytemaster

For the latest updates checkout my blog: http://bytemaster.bitshares.org
Anything said on these forums does not constitute an intent to create a legal obligation or contract between myself and anyone else.   These are merely my opinions and I reserve the right to change them at any time.