Health care and capitalism -- together like haggis and stout

The basic need for insurance and pension arrangements stems from personal risk and uncertainty -- and it is not a modern phenomenon. Even ancient civilizations fostered early versions of the concept of the insurance fund, with the grant of pensions in ancient Greece and the formation of burial societies in ancient Greece and Rome. In the Middle Ages it was sometimes possible to secure one's old age with a pension or even to purchase a room at a monastery with board and lodging provided. Marine insurance was invented, in order to help the expansion of trade, and this was followed by the beginnings of life insurance. Inevitably this is partly a book about "firsts".
Of course, the concept of deceit is not new, either. The earliest insurance fraud apparently was attempted in 350BC, when the owner of a ship tried to sink it.

Other examples of early insurance can be found: The earliest insurance policy seems to have been issued in 1350, on a cargo of wheat supplied from Sicily to Tunis. Life insurance goes back at least as far a 1399, when a policy was issued covering someone on a voyage from Barcelona to Italy. Astonishingly, the first occupational pension fund was established as early as 1590, the Chatham Chest, which paid pensions to disabled seamen and was financed by members' contributions deducted from their pay.

There was a great concern about the losses which people suffered in the Great Fire of London and in other fires in towns, and the first British fire insurance company was founded in 1680.
Many believe Napier, the Scottish inventor of logarithms (1614), may have been inspired to do so by studying the properties of compound interest tables. And Scotland provides the source of many a source about the use of insurance: the grant of pensions by Edinburgh Burgh Council in the 17th centuries; the pensions payable by Leith Trinity House in 1747; and, of course, the pioneering pension fund for Scottish ministers' widows (established 1743). Later, some prominent Scotsmen gathered in the Royal Exchange Coffee Rooms in Edinburgh to discuss setting up ‘a general fund for securing provisions to widows, sisters and other female relatives’ of fundholders so that they would not be plunged into poverty on the death of the fundholder during and after the Napoleonic Wars. Scottish Widows Fund and Life Assurance Society opened in 1815.

One might recall that Scotland is the home of Adam Smith, father of capitalism. Today's state of capitalism might, for Smith, demonstrate not the intrinsic faults of the system, but what happens when the moral dimension is neglected. In his 1759 book, Theory of Moral Sentiments, Smith takes on social and moral psychology and sociology: how one might understand how individuals and societies function not in separate compartments, but as parts of a complex whole. One of the key themes of the book is an opposition to the view that all morality or virtue is reducible to self-interest, as if individuals operated in isolation only concerned with their own particular well-being. Failure to craft an insurance approach to our society's medical needs is one such example of moral failure -- we need to look out for one another. When Smith later wrote The Wealth of Nations, he made it clear that the 'wealth' lay in the well-being of the people.


Want to learn more? Read Pensions and Insurance Before 1800: A Social History By C.G. Lewin and look up Adam Smith.


- Posted by Tom/Bluedog

The Business Climate in Washington is as Cold as the Weather

With so much of the Washington DC economy wrapped around work for the U.S. federal government, it is no surprise there is a chill in the air, even for a brisk February. President Obama is asking Congress to stave off "sequester", but many are bitterly resigned to the across-the-board budget cuts that seem inevitable. After 18 months of uncertainty (well, mostly) over an administration change, many were ready to get back to work on valued contracting opportunities such as Eagle II and others.

Defense contractors are pulling an "ostrich" move -- seemingly in total denial about the impending tsunami.

The sequester is a package of automatic spending cuts that were part of the Budget Control Act, which was passed in August of 2011. The cuts, projected to total $1.2 trillion, are scheduled to begin in 2013 and end in 2021, evenly divided over the nine-year period. The cuts are also evenly split between defense spending, with war spending exempt, and discretionary domestic spending, which exempts most spending on entitlements like Social Security and Medicaid. The total cuts for 2013 will be $109 billion, according to a White House report.

Austerity hasn't helped other governments deal with the economic downturn, particularly in my adopted homeland of the Republic of Ireland. In fact, such measures may be more than a bitter pill -- they may in fact retard growth overall.

Follow-up: Free WiFi

On the heels of the U.S. FCC's interest in free wifi for all, here's an article on municipal wifi in my favorite *other* home, Dublin.

If Leopold Bloom could have availed of free wifi as he engaged in his citywide perambulations all those years ago, we might have got a very different version of Ulysses, with added hashtags, LOLs and OMGs, but still of course displaying the same cavalier attitude to punctuation.
Dublin City Council has chosen some well-known landmarks to set up its brave new service: Temple Bar Square, Wolfe Tone Square, Smithfield Square, Barnardo Square, Clarendon Street, St Patrick’s Park, Merrion Park, Grafton Street, Henry Street, outside the GPO on O’Connell Street, in front of the Convention Centre on City Quay, and in the outdoor amphitheatre at the Civic Offices at Wood Quay.

In my current station, you can find free wifi around the city. But it is typically not the urban dwellers who need such access (think: Starbucks). Fixed wireless broadband from some companies is a step in the right direction, but again the market focus is on high-population urban centers (where, naturally, there are more potential customers per square mile). Finding info superhighway on-ramps in the countryside is still difficult. Let's hope that the spectrum proposed for ubiquitous wifi works well across long distances, so everyone truly has freedom of access.

Ars Technical indicates this is just the White Spaces proposal that's been around for a few years -- and not described as "free Wi-Fi for all". White Spaces may well be an important step toward expanding Internet access, but it is not going to bring free Wi-Fi to every major US city. White Spaces takes the spectrum from empty TV channels and allows the airwaves to be used for Wi-Fi, or "Super Wi-Fi" as it's sometimes called. Using lower frequencies than traditional Wi-Fi, White Spaces signals would be better at penetrating obstacles and thus travel farther.

Land of the Free... wifi

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission proposes free wifi access...

"Internet access is an essential need on par with education access, but at what point do regulators recognize that? When will government officials acknowledge that widespread, guaranteed access is essential to fostering growth in the country? Somewhat surprisingly, that time is now, as the FCC is now calling for nationwide free wi-fi networks to be opened up to the public. The FCC proposes buying back spectrum from TV stations that would allow for what the Washington Post is dubbing 'super wi-fi,' as the commission wants to cover the country with wide-ranging, highly-penetrative networks. Essentially, you can imagine the proposal as covering a majority of the country with open-access data networks, similar to cell networks now, that your car, tablet, or even phone could connect to. That means no one is ever disconnected, and some folks – especially light users and the poor – could likely ditch regular Internet and cell plans altogether."

Read more...

Someone to drive you home? That's worth alot!

In this Forbes article, the author makes some audacious claims:

...the driverless car has broad implications for society, for the economy and for individual businesses. Just in the U.S., the car puts up for grab some $2 trillion a year in revenue and even more market cap. It creates business opportunities that dwarf Google’s current search-based business and unleashes existential challenges to market leaders across numerous industries, including car makers, auto insurers, energy companies and others that share in car-related revenue.

As readers of this blog may have noticed, I like cars. Particularly German ones (even if one is owned by an American company. Driving is more than just reaching a destination, in my mind. It is about freedom, excitement, and more.

However, commuting is another story. One of my other loves, the bicycle, addresses this problem neatly. Still, as a SciFi fan, I find the thought of a self-driving car irresistible. An autonomous car, or robot car, is an autonomous vehicle capable of fulfilling transportation needs of a traditional car -- without a human to drive it. As an autonomous vehicle, such a car should be capable of sensing its environment and navigating without human input. The goal is -- you choose the destination, but you are required to operate the vehicle.

Perhaps the elderly or other less-ably-bodied will be the initial focus of the robot car? One aspect I like about Google's approach: there is no centralized control, like in the next-generation air traffic control, where each aircraft "controls" the space around it, communicating directly with others in its vicinity. Safer, higher volume/higher density of traffic, and more direct routing (for quicker arrivals). Getting that on the beltway or at the airport would be welcome.