Consumerism

  • I am not convinced that the consumer advocates,--David Swankin excepted-- really know or speak for what the average consumer wants.
    • I fear that in the dialogue between regulators, business and consumerists, what the general public really wants may be overlooked.

--  William M. White, Connecticut General - Director of Government Regulations

1980 - SOA - Effect of Governmental Actions and Consumerism on Product Design and Pricing of the Future, Society of Actuaries - 26p

  • Judge DeShelter suggested the areas where the life insurance industry was most vulnerable to attack from consumer advocates were:
    • (1) misrepresentation of product (basically advertising and sales presentations);
    • (2) inability to find a legitimate basis of cost comparison; and
    • (3) failure to bring pressures to bear in controlling medical costs.

1972 01 - SOA - Consumerism in Cincinnati, by Thomas Mitchell, The Actuary, Society of  Actuaries - 3p

  • Too many consumerists question everything the insurance industry does, and very often for self-serving motives.
  • Further, they show a marked rigidity of mind: having finally understood interest-adjusted net cost, they do not want to admit its deficiencies or learn alternatives.
  • And I often doubt if they are really interested in the consumer, anymore than a member of the Comintern is really interested in the proletariat - they are just interested in their place in the power structure.

--  J. Bruce MacDonald

1981 - SOA - The Life Insurance Business--The View of Consumerists, Society of Actuaries (rsa81v7n38) - Daniel F. Case - Moderator - 18p

  • : the promotion of the consumer's interests

merriam-webster.com/dictionary/consumerism

  • (p17) - David L Brain, executive vice president of Kentucky Central Life recently surveyed the top executives of 62 large, medium, and small life insurance companies for their opinions on the impact of the consumer movement on their business.
  • Thirty percent felt that the activity of the critics will lead to reduced premium rates or more liberal benefits. “
  • In addition to the negative publicity the industry has already received ," wrote Mr. Brain, “the most frequently mentioned effects of consumerism are:
    • better service and improved policy owner relations;
    • stiffer government regulations;
    • and a trend toward more frequent price benefit comparisons . . ."

1973 0220 - GOV (Senate) - The Life Insurance Industry, Senator Hart (D-MI) - Part 1 of 4 - [PDF-815p-GooglePlay]

  • Economic growth is going to have an impact on our surplus and performance.
  • Consumer activism is another.
  • Consumers want insurance companies to be more solvent and be more stable, but I'm not sure they want to pay for it.
  • It is kind of how Ross Perot sees the nation, in the sense that he knows what we need to be, but he's not real convinced that we want to pay for it.
  • We all need to buckle down and contribute to a solution.
  • Consumer activism has driven the rating agencies and
    the way companies do business.

--  DAVID E. NEVE

1992 - MANAGING STATUTORY PERFORMANCE, Society of Actuaries - 22p

  • From a consumerist point of view, ALl
    • (i) deemphasizes the dichotomy between term and permanent insurance
    • (2) will lead to improved policyholder understanding of his insurance portfolio
    • (3) means greater convenience in maintaining an up-to-date portfolio
    • (4) will result in an increased emphasis on service by the agent, and
    • (5) provides a means of protection against rises in the cost-of-living

--  J. Peter Duran

1979 - SOA - The Adjustable Life Decisions, Society of Actuaries - 18p

  • Criticism of the life insurance product has been around for many years and has been especially strong during the last decade.
  • I feel that, if the life insurance industry cannot find a way to create within the confines of those laws or, alternatively, to change them, then we must resign ourselves to an ever decreasing share of the savings dollar as well as mounting consumerist attacks.
  • JAMES A. MITCHELL: A thought that occurs to me is that consumerism must be good business for two basic reasons:
    1. We must deliver products and services satisfactory to the consumer if we are to stay in business.
    2. The organizations which do the best job in this regard are those which will grow and prosper over the longer term.
  • Thus, instead of looking exclusively at the short-term "costs" of consumerism to our companies, we should seek out and invest in the many areas where the interests of the policyholder and the company are parallel.
  • As an example, the key to delivering and maintaining our products is the agent. The basic reason that many of our policyholders are "orphans" is that such a high proportion of our agents do not survive more than a couple of years in business.
  • The attendant costs to our companies are large. If we can find the keys to doing a better job of recruiting, training, and helping to make our agent a success, then he can do the job of servicing his policyholders and we will have greatly increased the return on our investment in field manpower.

1972 - SOA - Transactions, Society of Actuaries - 360p

  • 1972 - SOA - Transactions, Society of Actuaries - 360p
  • 1974 - SOA - Consumerism and the Compensation of the Life Insurance Agent, by Anna Maria Rappaport - 68p
  • 1974 - SOA - Life Insurance and Consumerism, Society of Actuaries - 160p
  • 1976 - SOA - Consumer/Consumerist Trends and their Actuarial Implications, Society of Actuaries - 20p
  • 1980 - SOA - Effect of Governmental Actions and Consumerism on Product Design and Pricing of the Future, Society of Actuaries - 26p
  • Betty Furness, former Special Assistant to the President on Consumer Affairs, to the audience at a 1971 symposium on “the challenges of consumerism”:
    • “The consumer game is a game everybody plays whether they want to or not. The world is roughly divided into two teams. On the one side are the consumers; on the other, the people producing things for them to consume. The consumer game is a difficult game, in part because one teams seems to have invented the rules while the other team has been left to guess what they are.72
    • 72 Betty Furness, “Rising Consumer Expectations,” in The Challenge of Consumerism: A Symposium, ed. E. Patrick McGuire (The Conference Board, 1971), 15.
      • The symposium was organized by the Conference Board, a politically moderate business membership organization. The speakers included business executives, academics and government officials, but there was no speaker from any consumer organization. Furness was the closest among the speakers to “represent” the consumer movement’s views.  (p219)

2022 – AP – Sociology - Mobilizing Consumers: The American Consumer Movement In The 1960s-70s As A Social Movement - A Dissertation Submitted To The Faculty Of The Division Of The Social Sciences In Candidacy For The Degree Of Doctor Of Philosophy - Department Of Sociology, By Yaniv Ron-El -355p-knowledge.uchicago.edu/record/4840