Forum Post: Occupy Insurance - We can help each other by creating our own safety nets

Are you tired of paying high insurance premiums, and then going through hoops to try and get a pay back when you're in trouble? Have you ever called an insurance company just to be notified that because of some small fine print in page 23 you weren't covered?

The main idea behind insurance is to pool the community's resources to create a safety net for individuals who might find themselves in trouble because of an accident, or other problems. The irony is we let the 1% do this for us, and we all know they don't care about our communities. Why should they, they are not part of them! The communities are the ones who should handle things that affect them. We pay insurance for our fellow community members, so we should handle insurance ourselves.

Occupy should start an anarcho-syndicalist based insurance company for those who want real insurance, by the community, for the community. It's time to take control. To do. Why waste time protesting insurance companies when we don't even need them! That act only gives us the illusion that we depend on them. We are the people. We have the power to do stuff for ourselves, by ourselves.

One argument might be that many who support Occupy have no money to invest in insurance. A good point. However, let's not forget that money is only one way to help during a disaster, or some other type of problem. Poor people could pay with time instead. We just need to find some type of fair equivalency. Take a small city for example. There could be a community house insurance. Those who can't pay can promise to help rebuild in case of a fire, or make some other type of promise. A neighbor's house burns down, and the community insurance helps pay for the repairs and sends those who contributed time to help out in the reconstruction.

We have the power to do so many things as a community. We need to use that power and start doing. I imagine a city where banking is done using coops, where insurance is owned and run by the community, where people help others by dedicating their time and energies.

Let's use our many talents, intellects, and energies to create the better world together! We really don't need the 1% to do it for us. Once we start, people will follow when they see the amazing results that can be achieved through community efforts.