Working for a Property Ins Co I can tell you our offering of green coverage is disappointing. The average person cannot afford to retrofit or build a new “green” home and most of the “green” products are the same ones that have been around for years that never quite caught on with homeowners (solar panels, wind turbines, geothermal, passive solar, earthshelter). They are trendy again but the cost is prohibited when measured against actual savings and expended personal energy to get them up and keep maintained.
Gee golly….after reading this article I guess we’ll have to start euthanizing people, limiting childbirth counts, fund global abortion iniatives, restrict further domestic energy processing and limit medical options to only those under a certain age. If only the government or a world order can save us from ourselves.
I thought that was a very reasoned account of various insurance situations. It can be rather easy for insurance companies to ignore the “big” picture. It appears that this presentation did not do that at all. Actually pushed the boundaries. Great to see.
The world moves everything on trucks. When diesel fuel goes up (and it is well over $4 a gallon now (1/3 higher than last year)), every product carried in the truck costs more. Growth in income doesn’t keep pace so people’s ability to purchase get squeezed. If a person can’t put food on their table because of the rise in the cost of basic food products (think corn increases) they can’t repair their homes or vehicles or buy new cars or furnishings or purchase more insurance.
These are desperate times. Washington is still in denial. They’re on a spending binge that won’t end until we elect representatives and an administration that understand the current size of government is an albatross around our necks.
Interesting article. It’s great to see the use of “system dynamics” thinking in the P&C Industry although it nearly impossible to predict the exact cause/effect relationships between many of the variables brought up by the author, making integration of these concepts into rate making extremely difficult.
Joan’s comment is right on target. The more money spent on gas and food, the less to spend on what some might call luxuries. Insurance, doctor visits, medication, eating out, vacations, new clothes, all now considered luxuries when you need to put food on the table and gas in the car. The whole economy suffers.
Sad times.
Let’s see, housing prices will continue to plummet while inflation skyrockets? Pretty sure one of the two will not happen.
She raises some valid points, but ultimately sounds too alarmist. One thing to consider (beyond the inflation disconnect noted above) is that energy consumption is less than 10% of the US economy, whereas it used to be a much larger chunk. Raising oil prices still impact the economy, but not nearly as much as they used to. Another thing to consider is that energy in the US is very abundant in the form of coal. Coal brings global warming concerns, but if the dire predictions come to pass, the US would likely follow the China approach of being more concerned about its economy than the environment.
Working for a Property Ins Co I can tell you our offering of green coverage is disappointing. The average person cannot afford to retrofit or build a new “green” home and most of the “green” products are the same ones that have been around for years that never quite caught on with homeowners (solar panels, wind turbines, geothermal, passive solar, earthshelter). They are trendy again but the cost is prohibited when measured against actual savings and expended personal energy to get them up and keep maintained.
Gee golly….after reading this article I guess we’ll have to start euthanizing people, limiting childbirth counts, fund global abortion iniatives, restrict further domestic energy processing and limit medical options to only those under a certain age. If only the government or a world order can save us from ourselves.
I thought that was a very reasoned account of various insurance situations. It can be rather easy for insurance companies to ignore the “big” picture. It appears that this presentation did not do that at all. Actually pushed the boundaries. Great to see.
The world moves everything on trucks. When diesel fuel goes up (and it is well over $4 a gallon now (1/3 higher than last year)), every product carried in the truck costs more. Growth in income doesn’t keep pace so people’s ability to purchase get squeezed. If a person can’t put food on their table because of the rise in the cost of basic food products (think corn increases) they can’t repair their homes or vehicles or buy new cars or furnishings or purchase more insurance.
These are desperate times. Washington is still in denial. They’re on a spending binge that won’t end until we elect representatives and an administration that understand the current size of government is an albatross around our necks.
Interesting article. It’s great to see the use of “system dynamics” thinking in the P&C Industry although it nearly impossible to predict the exact cause/effect relationships between many of the variables brought up by the author, making integration of these concepts into rate making extremely difficult.
Joan’s comment is right on target. The more money spent on gas and food, the less to spend on what some might call luxuries. Insurance, doctor visits, medication, eating out, vacations, new clothes, all now considered luxuries when you need to put food on the table and gas in the car. The whole economy suffers.
Sad times.
Let’s see, housing prices will continue to plummet while inflation skyrockets? Pretty sure one of the two will not happen.
She raises some valid points, but ultimately sounds too alarmist. One thing to consider (beyond the inflation disconnect noted above) is that energy consumption is less than 10% of the US economy, whereas it used to be a much larger chunk. Raising oil prices still impact the economy, but not nearly as much as they used to. Another thing to consider is that energy in the US is very abundant in the form of coal. Coal brings global warming concerns, but if the dire predictions come to pass, the US would likely follow the China approach of being more concerned about its economy than the environment.