[HN Gopher] Sketches of misfortune in an insurance trade card
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Sketches of misfortune in an insurance trade card
Author : samclemens
Score : 38 points
Date : 2023-09-27 15:16 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (forgottenfiles.substack.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (forgottenfiles.substack.com)
| londons_explore wrote:
| Interesting that in general, such personal accident insurance
| isn't widespread today.
|
| Instead, people hope to find someone to sue - for example, suing
| mcdonalds for hot coffee.
|
| However, if I have my arm eaten off by a crocodile tomorrow and I
| can no longer do my job, I wouldn't be covered by anything. Can't
| sue a crocodile.
| mistrial9 wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tort_reform
| kylehotchkiss wrote:
| Whoever owned the land didn't tell you with an easily viewable
| sign that there are crocodiles nearby. You have a liable party
| now! Why do you think California puts a label on everything
| saying it could cause cancer?
|
| Plus disability insurance should cover this?
| Ylpertnodi wrote:
| >Instead, people hope to find someone to sue - for example,
| suing mcdonalds for hot coffee.
|
| Considerably more to the story than that. Poor example with no
| valid example.
| Wistar wrote:
| "As a result of her injuries, Ms. Liebeck spent eight days in
| a hospital. In that time she underwent expensive treatments
| for third-degree burns including debridement (removal of dead
| tissue) and skin grafting."
|
| Public Citizen: "Legal Myths: The McDonald's 'Hot Coffee'
| Case."
|
| https://www.citizen.org/article/legal-myths-the-mcdonalds-
| ho...
| [deleted]
| DavidPeiffer wrote:
| >However, if I have my arm eaten off by a crocodile tomorrow
| and I can no longer do my job, I wouldn't be covered by
| anything. Can't sue a crocodile.
|
| Isn't this what disability insurance is for? Every company I've
| worked for has offered disability insurance at no cost.
|
| Is it the best disability insurance available? Probably not.
| But it would cover a crocodile eating your arm.
| DoreenMichele wrote:
| Insurance is interesting and has an interesting history. It
| started as a form of speculating or gambling and it's still a
| form of "betting."
|
| Like casinos, an insurance company needs to design their product
| such that "house wins" in the aggregate. They need to take in
| enough income to pay employees, keep the lights on, pat out
| claims and turn a profit.
|
| So they need good info on how to price it such that it is
| sustainable.
|
| One way they make it sustainable: they conservatively invest part
| of the money they take in to defray costs.
| h2odragon wrote:
| There's religions that get exemptions from "insurance required"
| laws because they view it as gambling. They often do a mutual
| assurance bonding thing instead.
|
| Insurance companies use a whole different kind of statistics
| than many of the other sciences do; "actuarial science."
| "Statistics" is all about making your numbers appear to support
| your hypothesis, whereas actuarial is about finding the data
| hidden in those numbers.
| m463 wrote:
| I believe the amish don't use insurance.
|
| They also don't do social security (although I'm uncertain if
| they pay, or just don't use it)
| DoreenMichele wrote:
| I worked in insurance. I'm not crazy about insurance,
| actually.
|
| If you can find another means to cover your needs, I
| recommend you go with that. If you can't, there are scenarios
| where insurance makes sense.
|
| Example: If you want life insurance solely to cover your
| funeral, just do a prepaid funeral. If you have dependent
| minors, ideally you should have life insurance to help them
| should you die.
| kogus wrote:
| The first card image is interesting to me because of how many
| animal-related injuries it features, hinting at the much more
| rural life that most people had at that time. Three horses, a cow
| and a dog - I think a modern equivalent would include at most the
| dog.
| idlewords wrote:
| Even today, the deadliest animals in Australia (supposed land
| of deadly wildlife) are horses, cows, and dogs, in that order.
| weaksauce wrote:
| how are cows causing that much death?
| dgivney wrote:
| They jump in front of speeding cars at night
| sophacles wrote:
| For a while I dated someone who came from a farm, and they
| had cattle. When we visited their fam, I'd help out during
| chore time[1]. One of the chores was feeding the beasts
| twice a day. We'd fill some 5 gallon buckets with corn and
| dump them in a big trough in the middle of the cattle yard
| - they'd see us filling the buckets and come in from the
| pasture. The first two buckets were easy enough - the
| animals weren't there yet. The second set of buckets was a
| bit trickier, the animals were already crowding the trough
| and you needed to get in there with the buckets and dump
| them. Cows are very big, and quite heavy, you don't want to
| end up between a couple of them (metaphorically) elbowing
| each other to get at the trough, you'll end up squished and
| injured or worse. If you trip and fall, they'll just step
| on you to get to the feed.
|
| One time I was there when the vet was over to do stuff.
| Each animal needed to be checked out so they were rounded
| up in to a holding pen, and one by one brought through a
| "chute" (think narrow walkway made of very heavy fencing),
| to where the vet was waiting. Getting them to go in the
| chute, and getting them to stay relatively still for the
| vet was not easy - you could get hurt on accident (again a
| light brush from a heavy animal can send you flying), and
| if they go spooked or ornery and were fighting it things
| got worse. If they get really scared or nervous they may
| just kick at you - and if that lands you have problems, if
| it hits your head you have big problems.
|
| That's for cattle living in ~200 acres of land, and who
| were relatively tame from interacting with humans multiple
| times a day. The ones that live on giant ranges and range
| much freer are likely a bit rougher, a bit easier to spook
| and much more ornery.
|
| Cows (like all large animals) can be dangerous.
|
| [1] I'm not sure how much I actually helped - there was a
| lot of time spent explaining what needed to be done and how
| to do it, and me being new at it, a lot of time fixing my
| mistakes - fortunately everyone involved understood what
| was really happening: a combination of bonding time, me
| trying to be a good guest and genuine curiousity.
| snakeyjake wrote:
| Horses caused many, many more pedestrian deaths in pre-
| automobile New York City than cars do today (or 30 years ago
| when pedestrian deaths were at their peak).
|
| And that's just them going out of control and crushing
| someone, never mind the infectious disease spread by
| mountains of manure lining and rotting horse corpses (15,000
| in 1880 alone!) littering the streets.
| lief79 wrote:
| Remember, horses were the common mode of transportation then.
| bitwize wrote:
| It's like the Gashlycrumb Tinies as a marketing tool for
| insurance. Somehow both cynically capitalistic, and comforting to
| know insurance companies were a bit cheeky long before GEICO
| television ads.
| idlewords wrote:
| What is cynical about this?
| Terr_ wrote:
| I find myself oddly-appreciative of their explanation text:
|
| > Insurance simply distributes losses. The Company collects from
| all, that it may relieve some. You are as apt to be the one to be
| relieved as another. If vou do not meet with an accident you are
| simply taxed to relieve the necessities of some one who does, and
| may well be thankful that your suffering is confined to the
| pocket. You are much the gainer if you get nothing back; but, if
| you should be unfortunate, the insurance would be fully
| appreciated.
|
| I have no data for it, but my impression is that a distressingly
| large chunk of people _still_ don 't understand insurance, which
| would make this kind of primer is equally--if not more--important
| now than it was back around 130 (!) years ago.
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(page generated 2023-09-27 23:01 UTC)