Insurance makes sense in our current framework. But I agree whole heartedly that it results over time in a diminishing of community support among neighbors.

Our excessive reliance on monetization is what has led us to the sort of bizarre entanglements we now see. Oh hey, if I can make 6 or 7 figures trading in byzantine credit default swaps, what can go wrong? Cash flow is the measure of success, right?

Just the fact that no one is touching this thread is indication of how ingrained our reverence for money is. I mean consider how many people would kill their mother for a large suitcase packed with untraceable $100 bills. Or how willing many are to despoil land and rivers in pursuit of the yellow metal that makes the white man crazy. Alone in a wasteland with a trailer full of gold, one would still die of thirst and/or starvation, so what is more precious: gold or water?

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K