Sec. 15. #Excessive costs of insurance operation.# So beneficent is insurance that the enormous cost of transacting the business under present methods is much to be regretted.  A very large part of the premiums paid by the insured is retained by the companies.[8] In the case of reserve life insurance a considerable part of what is not returned is, however, set aside as reserve virtually held in trust for the policyholders.  In the case of the other kinds of insurance, nearly all of the amount not returned is either cost of operation or profits, tho it must be recognized that a part of the cost of some kinds of insurance is for real services, such as inspection and fire prevention.  It is remarkable that the percentage returned by the life insurance companies, accumulating, as they do, large reserves in trust for the policyholders, is greater than it is for the other kinds of companies (fire, marine, casualty, surety, liability, accident, and health insurance).

It is a striking evidence of the importance of the marginal principle[9] that insurance at such a cost should still be desired by men.  The use of insurance would be much wider and its benefits greater if this “tare and tret” of doing the business could be reduced.  It seems a reasonable hope, now that the experimental stages are passed, that this may be done.  In the case of all kinds of insurance as yet a large expense for agents has been necessary to educate men to see the value of insurance and to purchase it, as well as for many other competitive expenses.  It has been found that much of this expense can be saved by insurance in groups (for all employees in an establishment), by compulsory insurance (as of all working men), and by central state administration serving to regularize and unify the organizations.  This important question will be further considered in connection with “social insurance” as a measure to benefit the working classes.

[Footnote 1:  See Vol. 1, ch. 5, sec. 7.]

[Footnote 2:  The Jeffries-Johnson prize-fight was insured, against rain, for $30,000.  Frequently, race-horses, the fingers of pianists, the lives of ball-players, and the throats of singers, are now insured.  Summer hotels in England regularly insure for large sums against more than so many days of rain per season.]

[Footnote 3:  On the former, see Vol.  I, pp. 365 and 374; and on the latter, below, sec. 14.]

[Footnote 4:  See Vol.  I, labor-incomes, in Index.]

[Footnote 5:  There is an appearance of a slight discrepancy due to the omission of fractions of cents.  If premiums are collected at the beginning of the year and losses are paid at the end of the year, and if interest can be earned meantime at the rate of 3-1/2 per cent, the natural premium for a one year term policy is about $8.64, that being the present worth of $8.95 due a year hence, interest being 3-1/2 per cent.  In these calculations there is no allowance for expenses, the necessary “loading,” on which see below, sec. 14.]