In these missives, I usually discuss some aspect of life insurance. But what if life insurance didn’t exist? How would a family protect its most valuable asset? That shouldn’t be too hard to figure out, for although something resembling burial insurance has been found to exist as far back as the Roman Empire, life insurance as we know it today really didn’t come into play until the mid-nineteenth century.
Prior to then, if a parent died, the children were usually sent to live with a relative, at least until the survivor remarried. But as life insurance companies came on the scene, they began appealing to the moral responsibility of husbands to provide for their families. That tact hasn’t changed much in the intervening years, and is responsible for the maturation of life insurance as an industry.
But if it didn’t exist, what options would be available to a concerned breadwinner? One option would be the same one that was used almost exclusively before life insurance was developed, and that is sending the children to live with relatives. That probably wouldn’t be as viable as option today because families are more spread out than they used to be.
It seems another option is one that people are actually using in lieu of buying life insurance, and that is the website www.gofundme.com I wrote about this previously, but I have seen two instances since then where someone died and a well-meaning friend or relative created a page to solicit donations.
If life insurance didn’t exist, this would be a viable alternative, akin to passing the hat in the community in yesteryear. In twenty-first century America, where life insurance is available to most people, this is nothing but a sign that someone shirked their responsibility.
Saving as much as humanly possible would seem like possible solution. I mean a savings program that consumed the entire paycheck save for what was absolutely required for food, clothing, and shelter. It wouldn’t seem that that method would allow for a very enjoyable lifestyle, but with no life insurance option, what else could one do?
Well, enough of that speculation, because life insurance does exist, and because it does, we don’t have to save every penny earned or depend on the charity of others. A tiny fraction of what we earn is sufficient to provide for the safety and security of our loved ones. When compare to the alternatives, the premium on a life insurance policy is truly a bargain.