Insurance and risk.

      Forget all of the "good hands" and "good neighbor" and "there with you" stuff....Insurance is a by-the-books, cold, calculating legal gambling enterprise. Like Wall Street.

      When they bet and lose, they pay off what they have to and get out of Dodge (or Tuscaloosa).



     ALFA is cancelling insurance policies in Alabama because of the killer tornado outbreak, reports the Press-Register today. That's in addition to the earlier decision to insure only homes no "older" than ten years.

Insurance companies would prefer to insure only brand new one-story underground concrete houses with sprinkler systems, located on a gentle plain away from any rivers, in an area with no history of being touched by earthquakes or strong winds, much less tornadoes, owned---not rented--- by perfectly healthy white heterosexual farmer-like married couples (who, heaven forbid don't own any actual farm implements, at least none bigger than serving spoons) with no kids and no pets larger than a goldfish.

     Insurers are betting that you won't have a fire or a flood or a tornado in your backyard (or your ship won't catch on fire!) That's how they make their money, and that's the reason they exist. When they do lose, they sometimes pick up their marbles and leave.

     Just remember...buying an insurance policy is a business transaction, nothing more. That may be shortsighted in the big-picture way, since the overall good of the community will eventually help or hurt all companies doing business there, but that's the way it works. 

     Nothing wrong with that, but it's probably not the pitch you'll hear from an insurance agent.