Looking at what insurance companies did — and are doing — in Los Angeles amid its still-raging wildfires would be more than enough to inspire an old Black uncle to sip Hennessy and start talking about “The Man.”
Last March, State Farm — California’s largest home insurer — announced that it would not renew over 70,000 property insurance policies in the state and canceled hundreds of home owners policies in the Pacific Palisades, the same area currently being ravished by wildfires.
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Allstate halted new policies in the area in 2022, and insurance company Chubb no longer writes new policies for high-priced homes with a wildfire risk.
This is striking given the devastation we see playing out on social media. So much so that Tyler Perry, a man whose artistic taste I question but whose philanthropic heart I trust, took to social media to comment on what he saw happening in L.A.
“Does anyone else find it appalling that insurance companies can take billions of dollars out of communities for years and then, all of a sudden, be allowed to cancel millions of policies for the very people they became rich on,” Perry wrote on Instagram Sunday. “Watching a daughter use a garden hose to try and protect her 90-year-old parents’ home because their insurance was canceled was just gut-wrenching …”
It’s not League of Assassins level evil, but it’s not far.
In the insurance world, the goal is to make as much as you can while paying out the least amount possible. That’s why your insurance goes up if you have a sports car. The insurance company thinks there is a higher chance that you might crash the vehicle, so, to cover themselves, they charge you a higher premium.
Put simply, if they think there is a higher chance they might have to pay money, they will charge a higher premium. That’s the name of the game in insurance. But, in the background, the dirty truth is that insurance companies are making money, as old folks used to say, hand over fist.
Insurance is a trillion-dollar industry. (With a T) The way the companies have became that rich is easy to understand: They do their best to deny claims, and when they must pay, they underpay.
This reality is why Luigi Mangione allegedly did what he did. And it is why the internet had turned a man who killed another man in cold blood into a folk hero.
This leads us to what’s happening in L.A.
People who live in Palisades, Malibu, Eaton and Altadena (to name a few areas) are suffering one of the biggest natural disasters in our nation’s history. Thousands are displaced. Homes have been reduced to nothing more than embers. At press time, 24 people have lost their lives, a number experts expect that number to rise.
Everyone is looking for someone to blame. Is it the mayor? Is it the fire department? Even Elon Musk took to social media pointing fingers at the most absurd thing possible.
“DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] means people DIE.” He went on to say, “They prioritized DEI over saving lives and homes.”
Musk ain’t a Negro, but he is from South Africa. So, I’ll just say: Knee-grow please.
There are no easy answers. Climate change is a factor. Budget cuts are a factor. But one thing is clear: insurance companies are corrupt. They made trillions because people are afraid that they may need them, and when people are in need, they cut them off.
The fires rampaging in Los Angeles might be a natural disaster, but what insurance companies are doing is evil incarnate.
Straight From 
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