Flag Day: Is Insurance as American as Apple Pie?
Imported from London. Perfected by Franklin. Exploited ever since.
Flag Day. A time to honor the stars and stripes, the rebels who kicked off a revolution, and the ideals we say this country was built on—like fairness, independence, and having each other’s back.
So, let’s ask a hard question:
Is insurance really as American as apple pie?
Well... not exactly.
🍁 It Started in London
Insurance, like tea and taxes, was a British import. It started in coffee houses—Lloyd’s of London being the big one—where rich merchants wagered on whether ships would return home. It was all about managing risk for profit. Sound familiar?
Then came Ben Franklin, the printer, postmaster, and policy man. He brought the idea over and made it palatable—like putting cheddar cheese on your apple pie. In 1752, he founded the Philadelphia Contributionship, one of the first fire insurance companies in the colonies. And to his credit, Franklin tried to make it a civic virtue: reduce fire risk, reward safety, share the burden.
But the industry didn’t stop there.
📜 Enter Elizur Wright: The Insurance Reformer
Fast forward to the mid-1800s. Meet Elizur Wright, known as the Father of Insurance Regulation. A mathematician and abolitionist, Wright was disgusted by how some companies were swindling widows and orphans with shady life insurance policies.
He fought to bring transparency and fairness into the business. He even invented the actuarial tools to keep insurance honest (or at least measurable). Without him, your “cash value” policy might still be printed on napkins.
In other words, the people we celebrate in insurance history aren’t the ones who got rich—they’re the ones who tried to fix the system.
🥧 So, What’s More American?
Is insurance American? Sure. But so is questioning it. So is fighting to make it fairer.
On Flag Day, we salute the bold, those who had the courage to stand up and say, “This ain’t right.”
Because what’s more patriotic than defending your home… from your own insurance company?
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📬 Inssux Dispatch | inssux.substack.com