7 ms·

I used to sell life insurance. Dangerous careers would be more expensive. When I was an agent in 2004-2005 in the USA, being a police person was not considere

I used to sell life insurance. Dangerous careers would be more expensive. When I was an agent in 2004-2005 in the USA, being a police person was not considered dangerous enough to warrant a rate increase. As a professional wrestler, you'd be lucky to get life insurance at any price.

hef19898 6y ago
Insurance rates are such an underrated source for risk assessment.
- sigwinch28 6y ago
  Though not always reliable (see: credit default swap pricing in the lead up to the financial crash in 2007/8).
  - NovemberWhiskey 6y ago
    A credit default swap is not an insurance contract; you're in the world of 'buyer beware' not 'utmost good faith'. Even the monoline insurance wrappers around the various credit products were very atypically constructed insurance contracts.
    - kansface 6y ago
      Not the swap itself, but the assessments provided by the ratings agencies.
- hypewatch 6y ago
  Are they? What’s the alternative that gets all the undeserved attention?
  - jasonjayr 6y ago
    Simple Death rates? Insurance rates are developed by financially-motivated actuaries that consider a whole bunch of variables in order to create market-efficient rates.
  - Buldak 6y ago
    Well, in this case, the testimony of cops and politicians themselves
ceejayoz 6y ago
I'd love to see what would happen if cops had to carry doctor-style malpractice insurance, instead of the taxpayers picking up the bill for abuse settlements. "You've beaten enough innocent people your premiums are going from $500/month to $50,000. Your choice."
- leesalminen 6y ago
  I think we're going to start seeing this. Colorado just enacted a new law yesterday that removes qualified immunity from officers. Officers can now be sued personally for civil rights violations. They're going to need insurance. Let the actuaries decide who's a good and who's a bad cop!
  - dragonwriter 6y ago
    > They're going to need insurance. Liability from criminal acts is generally legally uninsurable for very strong public policy reasons, even without a conviction of the crime, and deprivation of rights under color of law is already a federal crime. (And many of the other things at issue with police abuse—murder most obviously—are more specific state and/or federal crimes, as well.) There's a space of insurable liability without QI, but it's not actually the space of most interest in the police abuse discussion.
    - ceejayoz 6y ago
      > Liability from criminal acts is generally legally uninsurable for very strong public policy reasons... OK, but cops are also subject to civil suits, as well as the legal fees themselves. It'd be a start.
      - dragonwriter 6y ago
        > OK, but cops are also subject to civil suits Civil liability for ones own criminal acts (at least wilfull ones, and often wilfull rather than merely negligent acts more generally) is often prohibited (the exact boundaries differ by jurisdiction), for very strong public policy reasons, and the vast majority of the acts of concern with police abuse are (very frequently unprosecuted, but that's not material when it comes to whether the civil liability is insurable) both willful and crimes, not mere negligence in either the general or professional malpractice sense (almost always intentional deprivation of rights under color of law and/or conspiracy against rights, and very often wilfull/intentional violent crimes on the assault to voluntary manslaughter to murder spectrum.) Drawing analogies to medical malpractice misses the fact that medical malpractice covers mistakes that fall short of the professional standard of care, but don't cover when someone who happens to be a doctor just decides to murder someone.
FireBeyond 6y ago
Even a firefighter. I asked about life insurance on my personal policy, mentioned my career. "That's fine. As long as you're not a smoke jumper." (parachute into isolated wildland fires to get ahead of the fire).

hef19898 6y ago

Insurance rates are such an underrated source for risk assessment.

sigwinch28 6y ago
Though not always reliable (see: credit default swap pricing in the lead up to the financial crash in 2007/8).
- NovemberWhiskey 6y ago
  A credit default swap is not an insurance contract; you're in the world of 'buyer beware' not 'utmost good faith'. Even the monoline insurance wrappers around the various credit products were very atypically constructed insurance contracts.
  - kansface 6y ago
    Not the swap itself, but the assessments provided by the ratings agencies.
hypewatch 6y ago
Are they? What’s the alternative that gets all the undeserved attention?
- jasonjayr 6y ago
  Simple Death rates? Insurance rates are developed by financially-motivated actuaries that consider a whole bunch of variables in order to create market-efficient rates.
- Buldak 6y ago
  Well, in this case, the testimony of cops and politicians themselves

ceejayoz 6y ago

I'd love to see what would happen if cops had to carry doctor-style malpractice insurance, instead of the taxpayers picking up the bill for abuse settlements. "You've beaten enough innocent people your premiums are going from $500/month to $50,000. Your choice."

leesalminen 6y ago
I think we're going to start seeing this. Colorado just enacted a new law yesterday that removes qualified immunity from officers. Officers can now be sued personally for civil rights violations. They're going to need insurance. Let the actuaries decide who's a good and who's a bad cop!
- dragonwriter 6y ago
  > They're going to need insurance. Liability from criminal acts is generally legally uninsurable for very strong public policy reasons, even without a conviction of the crime, and deprivation of rights under color of law is already a federal crime. (And many of the other things at issue with police abuse—murder most obviously—are more specific state and/or federal crimes, as well.) There's a space of insurable liability without QI, but it's not actually the space of most interest in the police abuse discussion.
  - ceejayoz 6y ago
    > Liability from criminal acts is generally legally uninsurable for very strong public policy reasons... OK, but cops are also subject to civil suits, as well as the legal fees themselves. It'd be a start.
    - dragonwriter 6y ago
      > OK, but cops are also subject to civil suits Civil liability for ones own criminal acts (at least wilfull ones, and often wilfull rather than merely negligent acts more generally) is often prohibited (the exact boundaries differ by jurisdiction), for very strong public policy reasons, and the vast majority of the acts of concern with police abuse are (very frequently unprosecuted, but that's not material when it comes to whether the civil liability is insurable) both willful and crimes, not mere negligence in either the general or professional malpractice sense (almost always intentional deprivation of rights under color of law and/or conspiracy against rights, and very often wilfull/intentional violent crimes on the assault to voluntary manslaughter to murder spectrum.) Drawing analogies to medical malpractice misses the fact that medical malpractice covers mistakes that fall short of the professional standard of care, but don't cover when someone who happens to be a doctor just decides to murder someone.

FireBeyond 6y ago

Even a firefighter. I asked about life insurance on my personal policy, mentioned my career. "That's fine. As long as you're not a smoke jumper." (parachute into isolated wildland fires to get ahead of the fire).