Insurance Is Accelerating Economic and Social Change in the United States: A Legal and Sociological Perspective

Insurance does not receive the full, rigorous interdisciplinary analysis to which it is due. The availability of insurance in a society is a critical factor in determining the potential economic success and social health of that society. The confluence of insurance principles, law, and sociology in the United States has only been addressed a few times over the past century, but for the most part, multi-disciplinary analysis of the insurance concept has not been comprehensively performed. Currently, insurance is accelerating economic and social change in the United States. This chapter analyzes insurance from a legal and sociological perspective, and highlights how, and why, the American insurance regime has reinforced the ever-widening wealth gap in the United States, led to large migrations of people within the country, and even contributed to the staggering increases of corporate power which now threaten the fabric of American democracy.