Insurance Era

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This work explores the social and cultural dynamics of private insurance in postwar America, highlighting the significant role of insurance institutions and actuarial practices in embedding neoliberalism into daily life. Actuarial thinking, a byproduct of the postwar insurance industry's influence, shapes our understanding of various societal issues, including crime, education, medicine, and finance. The author argues that since 1945, private insurers have wielded considerable social and economic power, with their actuarial practices playing a pivotal yet underexamined role in promoting neoliberal frameworks. Through an analysis of insurance marketing, consumption, investment, and regulation, the text reveals how postwar America’s fixation on safety and security led to the rapid growth of the insurance sector and the increasing emphasis on risk management across other domains. The rise of neoliberal values, as Horan illustrates, was not incidental; it stemmed from a deliberate effort to unsocialize risk, diminishing the state's role in providing support and placing disproportionate burdens on those least equipped to handle them. This account offers a meticulously researched and compelling examination of how private insurance and its actuarial logic became entrenched in American concepts of social welfare.