But they aren’t a one-stop-shop, and you have to manage them, and they can and do screw up, or outright embezzle, and since they’re individuals, you don’t have the “this company wouldn’t risk its reputation over this” trust factor.
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So… there’s clearly a need here, and it’s clearly not impossible to fulfill, just difficult. As a business, you’d start by marketing a very expensive service to the actually-rich. You’d need lots of Respectable People involved initially to provide trust.
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Or, potentially, a big well-loved company (Apple??) could develop it initially as an in-house offering for senior employees, establish its trustworthiness, then open to public. (Maybe sort of like the “Haven” Berkshire/Amazon/JPM heathcare initiative)
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Once you had economy of scale, it could become affordable for the middle class. Maybe it costs $10k/year, which no one would sign up for initially, but once it became understood that it frees up your weekends… priceless
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One main way of achieving economy would be to force streamlined procedures on providers. “We are going to switch our 100k upper-middle-class clients to a different provider unless you make this easy for us.” Forces internalization of administrative externalities.
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This could be a huge economic and social good, eliminating large swathes of the rent-seeking bullshit that infests the current economy.
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I'm with you! I think the magnitude of this ubiquitous inefficiency is tremendous, and I think you're really right that it is also a fertile terrain for fraud and exploitation. Years ago, my young family was nearly destroyed by a suspicious "error" at a health insurance company.
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Replying to @zooko @Meaningness and
And I think there could maybe be a breakthrough solution leveraging modern information technology tools and correct incentive alignment.
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Replying to @zooko @Meaningness and
Imagine if regular, middle-class people could have a Dangerous Professional at their elbow at all times. When you call the health insurance company, your personal lawyer who is trained in health insurance law and negotiation is at your side taking notes and advising you.
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Replying to @zooko @Meaningness and
Obviously that isn't scalable/affordable/realistic, but maybe it *is* realistic if it is a robot lawyer, present in your phone so it is always with you, and backed by human lawyers remotely.
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Or: “I am a client of The Bullshit Elimination Company, member #8598759. Sort this out with them.” [They send you $2.7bn/year in business, so I am confident you will.] Customer Service Rep: “Oh, all right, here’s your refund.”
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Important note: by the time you realize that some bureaucratic process is screwing you, it’s already too late to get things fixed the efficient (inexpensive) way. You need an AI/assistant/advocate who takes notes and advises you at every step, from the beginning.
0 replies 1 retweet 4 likesThanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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Replying to @context_ing @Meaningness and
There is such a thing, it's called reinsurance! There's even reinsurance for reinsurers, called retrocessionaires.
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End of conversation
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