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Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Insurance and the Concentration of Wealth

I believe that the distribution of capital is more important than the distribution of income.

If a society has an equitable distribution of capital, then an equitable distribution of income will follow.

A society with concentrations of capital develop great inequities in the distribution of income as the insiders are able to make off with the wealth of the nation.

The insurance industry has a negative impact on the distribution of capital.

In self-funded health care (eg the MS&L), people save resources in times of health for times of need. This creates a system where individuals hold a great deal of capital.

With insurance, people pool their resources for funding care. This pool needs to develop a large investment portfolio to assure it has money on hand for when it is needed.

The individuals who own insurance stop saving for future medical expenses.

The insurance industry creates artificial inequities in the ownership of capital which lead to inequities in the distribution of income.

If the health care debate gets people thinking about health care, and if people decide to reduce their dependency on insurance and opt for self funded care, then the society would start to reverse the cause for the inequitable distribution of capital and income.

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