Dead Peasants Insurance – a new low for civilization

Perceptions by Gerry Warner

Just when you think you’ve heard it all and you couldn’t possibly be surprised or appalled anymore, something comes along that knocks you screaming to your knees – “dead peasants insurance.” Let me explain, and for my explanation, I’m heavily indebted to Harvard Professor Michael Sandel and the Manchester Guardian newspaper.

Sandel, a professor of philosophy and politics at Harvardarvard and the author of the widely acclaimed best seller, “Justice,” has written another sure-to-be acclaimed book, “What Money Can’t Buy, the moral limits of markets.”  I recently read a review of the book in The Guardian and I’m still sweating with anger and disbelief.

First let me explain “dead peasants insurance,” sometimes known as “janitors insurance.” An employee of a big-box retail company, one present here in Cranbrook, was recently carrying a TV set outside for a customer when he collapsed and died of a heart attack and an insurance company paid out $300,000 for the loss of his life.

A tragic event for those concerned, but not all that unusual in today’s busy world. However, what may give you pause for concern is that the money didn’t go to the deceased’s family. They didn’t even know of the policy. No the $300,000 went to the dead man’s employer, the largest retail company in the world, that had taken out a “dead peasants insurance” policy on him and thousands of others of its staff.

Is this illegal? Not on your life. (unintentional pun) Numerous companies do it and it’s one of the latest things in the insurance industry known as “stranger originated life insurance.” Is it immoral? Unethical? That I will leave up to you, but according to The Guardian review when an insurance company president was interviewed about it, he said: “There have been some phenomenal returns, but there have also been some horror stories when people live longer.” I kid you not, and if that doesn’t give you the creeps, you better put your hand to your chest to see if you still have a heart.

Guess when this kind of “insurance” originated. During the early days of the AIDS epidemic. I don’t need to explain the details. However, Sandel uses this ghoulish practice as an example of the intrusion of market values into everyday life (and death) and laments what The Guardian calls “the collective loss of our moral compass.” Or as Sandel puts it: “The most fateful change that unfolded in the last three decades was not an increase in greed. It was the expansion of markets, and of market values, into spheres of life where they don’t belong.”

But in a society where everything is for sale and it seems money can buy almost anything – the U.S presidency, an Olympic medal, a trophy wife, happiness itself – this commodification of our moral and ethical values is deeply troubling and promotes great cynicism . It makes me think of what Oscar Wilde once said: “A cynic is someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”

And it isn’t philosopher Ayn Rand, the apostle of capitalism, that Sandel has in his sights. Like the author of  “Atlas Shrugged,” Sandel says the unfettered free market does one thing very well. “No other mechanism for organizing the production and distribution of goods has proved as successful for generating affluence and prosperity.”

No, Sandel is not advocating socialism per se, but he is saying there are areas of life that the profit motive must take second place to the public good and that money has a tendency to corrupt some of our highest values. One intriguing example he offers is of a daycare in Israel where parents often arrived late to pick up their children, showing a lack of concern for their kids and even more so for the daycare staff. So the daycare started to fine the tardy parents and you know what happened? The problem grew worse than before because the guileless parents simply regarded the fine as another fee to be paid and they could afford it.

But there are other examples all around us. A school in Texas that pays students $2 for every book they read. Does this engender a love of reading or a love of money? What about carbon offset payments? Do they equate to a love of the environment or just a socially acceptable way for people of means to pollute?

I haven’t read the book yet, but I think Sandel is on to something here. They say money can’t buy love, and if that’s true, there are lots of other things that money shouldn’t be able to buy either.

Gerry Warner is a retired journalist and a Cranbrook City councillor. His views are his own and not meant to represent city council.