Monday, November 8, 2010

Dead Peasants

Isn't this a weird photo? My friend Charlotte spotted it yesterday while we were firing....

Have you heard about Dead Peasant's insurance? Maybe I have been under a rock but this is the first I have heard of it. You can google dead peasants and read lots more if you are curious like I was. Does anyone else think this is fucked up besides me? Our country is not governed by a government elected by "the people". It is governed by Bank of America, Wall Street, insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry. We need a REVOLUTION!!!!!

"Dead Peasant Insurance is sometimes used as a shorthand reference for life insurance policies that insure a company’s rank-and-file employees and name the company as the beneficiary. This means that the company receives the life insurance benefits when the covered employees die.
'Dead peasants' insurance pays your employer a secret, tax-free windfall when you die. Insurers have sold millions of policies to companies such as Dow Chemical.
Right now, your company could have a life insurance policy on you that you know nothing about. When you die -- perhaps years after you leave your employer -- the tax-free proceeds from this policy wouldnt go to your family. The money would go to the company.

Whats more, the company might use this policy to pay for retirement benefits and other perks not for you or your fellow workers, but for your companys top executives.

Sound outrageous? Such corporate-owned life insurance is also big business:
Companies pay a whopping $8 billion in premiums each year for such coverage, according to the American Council of Life Insurers, a trade group.

The policies make up more than 20% of the all the life insurance sold each year.

Companies expect to reap more than $9 billion in tax breaks from these policies over the next five years. The policies are treated as whole life policies. So, companies can borrow against the policies (though the IRS won't let them write off the interest). And the death benefits are tax-free.
Hundreds of companies -- including Dow Chemical, Procter & Gamble, Wal-Mart, Walt Disney and Winn-Dixie -- have purchased this insurance on more than 6 million rank-and-file workers

8 comments:

Linda Starr said...

not surprised at all, unfortunately

cookingwithgas said...

that photo is just as spooky as government can be!

Brian said...

I'd heard about that a couple years ago and was just as disgusted then as I am now.
I'm reminded of the story 'Trouble in Mouseland', where all the mice keep voting cats into office. White ones, black ones, striped ones, half and half, but nothing ever changed.
Theres a movement I just found called the Coffee Party, trying to put the power back into the hands of the people. They have a very informative website.

cindy shake said...

But of course -Crazy stuff! And even crazier photo -holy cow that's surreal!

Mike Barber said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mike Barber said...

I used to work in IT for Wachovia (now Wells Fargo) and they had one on me. At least they told me! I happened not to care at the time (I was younger and more naive) - but I agree with you that it ought to be illegal unless the employee consents.

Hollis Engley said...

Yikes.

Christine--RHP said...

I was just talking (well, ranting actually) about this the other day. grrrrrr.