We live in an insurance-crazed society. Our obsession with insurance must reflect our obsessive culture that encourages people to worry about everything. We insure our cars in case we dent our fender in the supermarket parking lot, or our homes for theft loss or catastrophe. For some people, mortgages are insured, healthcare is covered, and insurance is purchased for survivors when we die.

For those with money to burn, there is even excessive insurance offered for anything you can imagine. The media has reported that Mariah Carey insured her legs for one billion dollars.

So why not poverty insurance?

Actually, our country has offered poverty insurance for the last seventy-five years, it is called Social Security. Social Security is a very simple yet powerful idea—take a little bit out of everyone’s paycheck in order to protect us all from financial disaster when we are old.

Without Social Security, nearly 20 million Americans would fall into poverty.

President Roosevelt created the Social Security Act to help lift Americans out of the greatest economic depression in this country’s history. Americans today continue to benefit from President Roosevelt’s poverty-fighting initiative, especially during today’s “Great Recession”.

Homeless Insurance

Sure, critics of this social program think it will go bankrupt. They do not trust the government with our money, and would rather encourage a privately controlled social retirement program. But the facts show that millions of Americans stay clear of poverty because of Social Security.

With Los Angeles and the rest of this country struggling to resolve homelessness, a form of extreme poverty, perhaps a new social initiative should be developed.

How about homeless insurance?

Conceivably, everyone paying a mortgage could contribute to a national homeless fund that would go toward providing permanent supportive housing for Americans who struggle on our streets.

Does that sound too utopian to you? I am sure that back in 1935 critics of Roosevelt’s plan thought Social Security sounded just as outlandish as homeless insurance does today.

Photo credit: The American Liberal Review