Andy Lang
05-19-2002, 01:48 PM
A post by me to a wise-guy in the SOA desert forum, Alberto:
Dear Alberto:
You clearly don't know me, otherwise you might be quaking in your boots, metaphorically, intellectually and actuarially, so to speak.
The Big Four are all failing, as is the notion that life insurance policies and medical care are great deals for the consumer--as Joseph Belth has made it clear for decades now.
All of these are primarily actuarial problems.
Moreover, the Big Four if done right, can help the world move towards democracy as well as saving the retirement security of the planet, while if done wrong--privatization--will create the strong possibility of destroying democracy itself and making slaves of ordinary people, in favor of major multinationals and transnationals. think Enron multiplied times several thousand. Check out Fast Company's May 2002 article, Bad Business: Are All Companies Crooked?
In fact, save only for the use of weapons of mass destruction, there is no larger issue in the world today than SS and medicare and their private counterparts, retiree medical systems and defined benefit pension plans.
The first three are not even actuarially sound systems, lacking two of the three basic components for all DB plans; actuarial advance funding and laws with teeth to protect the plan participants, while the last one, DB pension plans in private industry has all three, but alas, the last component, laws, have been subverted to benefit the plan sponsor and all too often screw the employees.
So print out this message and tack it to your wall and, repeat it three hundred times every day until you memorize it, and you will have more wisdom and knowledge than most of the actuaries on this board.
Politeness, BTW is vastly overrated. Truth is vastly underrated. Both especially here.
I spoke to AndyBert the other day and here is what he said:
Me: "The world is going to hell in a hand basket. My question is how can you classify people as to why this might be happening? After all, you created this mess."
AndyBert: "There are three kinds of humans in the world; those who like to give orders; those who like to take them; and those who like to break them."
Me: "So what?"
AndyBert: "The last group are the ones from which great breakthroughs occur--you know, trial ands error, experimentation. It's the basis for all movement forward--and sometime backward too. It's the basis for what you humans call, evolution and it also drives the inorganic universe as well."
Me: "And...?"
AndyBert: "So right now, the pace of change is so great that the first two are in major supply while the later are in short supply. They might catch up, but right now it doesn't look good."
Me: "And how about my profession?"
AndyBert: "The ones who break the rules are nearly nonexistent--the result of a century of managed human-made evolution within your profession, with propagation of your species being made totally dependent on money."
Me: "As opposed to...?"
AndyBert: "Doing what is right for the workers, dummy. Didn't Christ tell you, do unto others as..."
Me: "But how do you make money and eat in the meantime?"
AndyBert: "Easy, eat the bad guys. There are plenty of people who need actuaries to help them recover money lost and to repair things like Social Security. The world, what you call the 'developed' world, a misnomer if ever there was one, are all getting older you know. Competition is how the world moves forward and destroy it and you destroy the world. I set it up that way."
Me: "But how do we go about doing this...!!??"
AndyBert: " Come on, I have already told you plenty. If I told you any more, you wouldn't have free will and your brain would atrophy and then the whole thing doesn't work..."
Me: "But, but..."
But then he was gone.
Dear Alberto:
You clearly don't know me, otherwise you might be quaking in your boots, metaphorically, intellectually and actuarially, so to speak.
The Big Four are all failing, as is the notion that life insurance policies and medical care are great deals for the consumer--as Joseph Belth has made it clear for decades now.
All of these are primarily actuarial problems.
Moreover, the Big Four if done right, can help the world move towards democracy as well as saving the retirement security of the planet, while if done wrong--privatization--will create the strong possibility of destroying democracy itself and making slaves of ordinary people, in favor of major multinationals and transnationals. think Enron multiplied times several thousand. Check out Fast Company's May 2002 article, Bad Business: Are All Companies Crooked?
In fact, save only for the use of weapons of mass destruction, there is no larger issue in the world today than SS and medicare and their private counterparts, retiree medical systems and defined benefit pension plans.
The first three are not even actuarially sound systems, lacking two of the three basic components for all DB plans; actuarial advance funding and laws with teeth to protect the plan participants, while the last one, DB pension plans in private industry has all three, but alas, the last component, laws, have been subverted to benefit the plan sponsor and all too often screw the employees.
So print out this message and tack it to your wall and, repeat it three hundred times every day until you memorize it, and you will have more wisdom and knowledge than most of the actuaries on this board.
Politeness, BTW is vastly overrated. Truth is vastly underrated. Both especially here.
I spoke to AndyBert the other day and here is what he said:
Me: "The world is going to hell in a hand basket. My question is how can you classify people as to why this might be happening? After all, you created this mess."
AndyBert: "There are three kinds of humans in the world; those who like to give orders; those who like to take them; and those who like to break them."
Me: "So what?"
AndyBert: "The last group are the ones from which great breakthroughs occur--you know, trial ands error, experimentation. It's the basis for all movement forward--and sometime backward too. It's the basis for what you humans call, evolution and it also drives the inorganic universe as well."
Me: "And...?"
AndyBert: "So right now, the pace of change is so great that the first two are in major supply while the later are in short supply. They might catch up, but right now it doesn't look good."
Me: "And how about my profession?"
AndyBert: "The ones who break the rules are nearly nonexistent--the result of a century of managed human-made evolution within your profession, with propagation of your species being made totally dependent on money."
Me: "As opposed to...?"
AndyBert: "Doing what is right for the workers, dummy. Didn't Christ tell you, do unto others as..."
Me: "But how do you make money and eat in the meantime?"
AndyBert: "Easy, eat the bad guys. There are plenty of people who need actuaries to help them recover money lost and to repair things like Social Security. The world, what you call the 'developed' world, a misnomer if ever there was one, are all getting older you know. Competition is how the world moves forward and destroy it and you destroy the world. I set it up that way."
Me: "But how do we go about doing this...!!??"
AndyBert: " Come on, I have already told you plenty. If I told you any more, you wouldn't have free will and your brain would atrophy and then the whole thing doesn't work..."
Me: "But, but..."
But then he was gone.