Direct Credits for Everybody
By Alfred Lawson

CHAPTER 15

Insurance Evils Will Pass Away

With Direct Credits for Everybody the evils of insurance will pass away.

Under the present impractical system of finance there may be some good reasons for insurance, but with Direct Credits for Everybody, there will be no reason for it at all.

Bad business habits are like vice habits, they are easy to get but hard to get rid of. Those afflicted with bad habits usually entice others to adopt them, and little by little everybody becomes infected.

A cancer once started and allowed to grow to certain stages becomes difficult to uproot, and when vice or bad business habits grow up in a nation they are just as difficult to get rid of as the cancer.

Insurance has had a monstrous growth during the past few generations. Some insurance corporations now control billions of dollars’ worth of wealth, which of course was taken from everybody. If they did not get all this wealth from everybody, then where did they get it?

In the first place they got everybody's money by promises of certain benefits under certain conditions. The proof that they did not give back to everybody as much as they took from everybody is apparent by the enormous quantity of wealth they now own outright. That should be sufficient evidence for any disinterested jury.

But getting everybody's money in the first place by promises of certain benefits does not constitute the entire transaction of getting everybody's wealth. That is only the beginning of it.

After insurance corporations get everybody’s money through promises of future benefits, then they turn around and loan that money back again to everybody and charge a tax, known as interest, for the use of it. These loans must be backed with securities valued at several times the loan.

In time, the payment of interest upon interest makes it impossible for everybody to repay the loans and then the insurance corporations take possession of the securities, such as bonds, stocks, farms, city real estate, factories, stores, and the homes of the people. In that way, they not only get back the amount of the original loan but additional wealth worth many times it.

So everybody first starts the insurance corporations with their money, then borrow it back again at interest and finally give their wealth to the insurance corporations because they cannot pay the interest on the loans.

That is how those billions in wealth come to them and if such manipulations continue for a few more generations, about all that anybody will have to leave as an inheritance will be a pile of unpaid interest debts.

That, however, is only the financial side of it. There is a worse side to consider, for insurance breeds carelessness, laziness, and crimes of the most diabolical nature.

How many people have been murdered for the insurance on their lives? How many buildings have been burned so that scoundrels could get the fire insurance? How many automobiles have been destroyed that insurance could be collected! How much carelessness has been bred in persons because those interested knew they would get the insurance no matter what happened! How much laziness has been generated by unemployment insurance paid to men for doing no work? All of these bad features must be considered when investigating insurance.

The only insurance essential according to the Direct Credits plan is that everybody will be insured the right to work at all times and enjoy equal opportunities to do the greatest good for the greatest number of people.

Parents, when about to leave this world, will not have to worry about the future of their children, because Direct Credits are provided for them until they are 21 years of age. Then, well paid employment is assured them for the next 44 years. Children will not have to worry about their aged parents because Direct Credits come to them as long as they live for work they performed between the ages of 21 and 65. Nobody will have to worry about the sick, or lame, or insane, because Direct Credits are issued to care for them.

When, under Direct Credits for Everybody, anyone between the ages of 21 and 65, gives his best efforts towards the creation of everybody's wealth, he will not only have earned what he received during that time, but he will also have earned his living expenses for the remainder of his natural life as well. And, his living credits will not be given to him in the shape of a dole, or insurance, or charity, but because he has already earned it with 44 years of good honest service. He has, during those 44 years advanced to everybody value in labor for which he must be paid back during his old age. And there will be no way for anybody to take these credits from him.

Of course, those who have done the most useful work for everybody during those 44 years of service will naturally be entitled to larger allowances for living expenses when old as well as when middle-aged and doing their best work. This will be an incentive for everybody to give their best efforts toward the production of useful wealth at all times.

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