The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-04-28
By MAX BEDACHT

ganlZat1OnS) insist that thelr m
surance service is a social insurance.
Many books have been written by
agents Of insurance companies on
the social insurance" service Of
private insurance companies.
There is Just enough truth in this
claim to make it a monstrOus lie.
Capitalist insurance companies are
as much social institutions as are
bread factories. To be sure, both
are based on social needs Of the
masses: but these social needs do
not concern the owners of the
bread factory. nor do they bother
much the grand moguls of the in
surance companies. What they are
concerned with is profits. OF course
they welcome the social need for
bread and for insurance. They
welcome it not because it gives
them a chance to perform social
service by supplying bread or by
supplying insurance; they welcome
it because this social need forces
society to perform private service
to them.
The social need for bread and
for insurance forces society to get
bread and to get insurance. The
masses can get the bread they need
and the insurance they need only
from the capitalists who own the
bread and control the insurance
companies.
Neither the grand moguls of the
Insurance companies nor the own
--~ers of the bread factories distribute
wares to fill evident social
needs. Both distribute it only to
fill their own pockets. When for
some reason the masses run out
of funds and can no longer pay
for their bread or their insurance,
both the bread manufacturer and
the grand mogul stop the distribu-
-tion of their wares. Anyway, they
stop distributing it to those who
though bitterly in need, can no
longer pay for it. The social need
continues and even increases, but
the social service" of the capitalists
discontinues. The greater the social
need because Of mass want, the
more universal becomes the refusal
of the capitalists to serve the need.
The claim of the capitalists that
theirs is a social service is worth
less cloak which serves the purpose
of making the eXploiter Of popular
needs appear as lofty social
servant. The capitalist tries to
pass as a social benefactor. The
facts make him a social parasite.
He is not a social servant but a
modern robbe~~oaron.
- No capitalist insurance company
can fill the need for social insur-
ance. These companies only ex-
plot that need. Only real social
insurance can serve the masses,
WHAT is real social insurance.
" The workers are a class in
society which has no other source
of existence but wages. They can
not collect wages when they have
no jobs. They cannot get jobs in
periods of economic crisis. They
cannot fill jobs in periods of sick
ness, disability or old age. In such
cases the workers face misery, suf-
fering and starvation. This is not
problem of the individual work
ers. 1t is a social problem. The
workers suffer as result of social
conditions. The maintenance Of
the workers is therefore a social
duty.
Social insurance must help to
solve this problem. Social insur-
ance Is system of insurance which
supplies the worker with an in
come when through no fault of his
own he cannot supply it through
his own efforts. Social insurance
is a system of insurance which be-
gins to operate whenever the work
sr's wages stop. When the worker
loses his job and cannot any longer
earn his living social insurance
must supply him with his living
in the form Of unemployment in
surance. When the worker gets
sick and can no longer earn a
living, social insurance must supply
his living in the form Of sick in
surance.
When old age disables the worker
from working, or from getting a
job, thus depriving him of his
source of life, this source Of life
must be supplied by social insur-
ance In the form Of old age pen
sions. When maternity Interrupts
the ability of the working woman
to earn her living, she must be
toI Will \ - IS1r3r, t1xr
social insurance in the form of
maternity insurance. In short,
whenever and wherever the work
er's ability to earn his living ceases
or Is interrupted, social insurance
must go into operation and main
tain the worker and his family.
Social insurance therefore has
nothing in common with capitalist
insurance companies and their
function. 1t cannot be based on
the calculating of actuaries. 1t
cannot be made dependent on the
ability of the worker to contribute
to the funds out of which payments
are to be made. 1t is not at all
the responsibility Of the worker to
contribute in any form to the social
insurance funds. The worker is
the sufferer from the condition;
his suffering is to be relieved. He
is the victim without any respon-
sibility toward the condition.
Social insurance therefore must
take its funds from those who are
the benefciaries of the existing
society, the profit collectors, not
from the workers who are its
victims.
IF ALL proposals and schemes
" ever brought foruard under tho