In “Double Indemnity,” the Depression era masterpiece about insurance fraud and murder, the anti-hero Walter Huff quickly disabuses the reader from thinking of insurance as a virtuous enterprise:
“You think it’s a business don’t you, just like your business, and maybe a little better than that, because it’s the friend of the widow, the orphan, and the needy in time of trouble? It’s not. It’s the biggest gambling wheel in the world.”
The recent murder of an insurance company executive and the social media jubilee that occurred in its aftermath both raise questions about the place of the insurance industry in American society. And while recent trends may help explain this senseless and tragic event — the rise in firearm availability and violence, the growing mental health crisis, increasing disaffection with institutions — animosity toward insurance companies was at the core. This sentiment is as old as the insurance business itself.
