Gronkowsi (the horse), Easy Life Insurance, a Kathleen Parker Column, a Kentucky Valedictory and a 2011 Posting Revisited

A Lesson from the Belmont Stakes

It's no surprise that Justify won the Belmont Stakes, completing his attaining the Triple Crown of horseracing.  My pick in the race indeed was Justify, with the caveat that if he hadn’t gotten the lead by the half-mile pole, he would have a hard time winning, but would still win.  Well, he had the lead, as we all saw, from the minute he left the gate and the issue was never in doubt.

The most interesting story to come out of the race is the second-place finisher, long shot Gronkowski (named after and partially owned by the Boston Patriots receiver).  After a quarter mile of the one and a half mile race, shown below, Gronkowski was last by almost twenty lengths, about ten lengths behind the next to last horse.  But during the final half mile of the race, he took off from way back there passing everyone except Justify, the easy winner.  Gronkowski’s race is the race to watch, when looking at replays of the Belmont Stakes. 

There’s a lesson in life in there somewhere, particularly for those distressed by being in last place, in horseracing or wherever else.  (Gronkowski, a 23-1 shot, paid $13.80 for those who puchased a $2 "place" ticket on him, hoping he would come in second.)

Jack Lippman

A Little About Life Insurance

I frequently see an advertisement on TV whereby life insurance with no health questions asked is offered to seniors up to age 85 at the amazing price of $9.95 a month regardless of age.   Sounds pretty good, but here are the facts which the guy doing the pitch leaves out.  It probably is in the very, very  small print on the screen for a couple of seconds which no one ever has time to read. 

Fact 1:  The premium may be the same regardless of age, but the amount differs since it depends on how large a permanent death benefit that premium will purchase, and of course, the older one is, the smaller the face amount of the insurance policy is.

Fact 2:  True, there are no health questions to answer, but to avoid people on their deathbeds loading up with this insurance, the death benefit is limited to a return of the premiums paid, plus a little interest, during the policy’s first two years.

Fact 3:  The policies sold are traditional “whole life” policies where the cash value (roughly what you can cash in the policy for) grows over the years and finally, at age 95 or perhaps 100, is equal to the death benefit itself or at least forms a great part of it.  Thus, statements to the effect that the death benefit can never be reduced sound good but really are meaningless.

Fact 4: (And this is the hard one) All life insurance policies, whether they are “whole life,” universal life or endowment policies, are based on mortality tables which tell the insurance company how many people at any given age will not survive to make the next year.  Whatever the structure of the policy,  there has to be enough money to pay death claims on those that are anticipated to die within any policy year according to these mortality tables.  Example: At age 75, assume the tables say twenty people out of 1,000 will not make age 76.  At age 85, assume they say 40 people out of 1,000 will not make age 86.  From these numbers, a price per $1000 of insurance at every policy year is determined and built into the level premium of the permanent policy to pay for whatever death benefit amount the cash value of a typical whole life policy is insufficient to cover.  For what it is worth, that price is called the “one-year term rate,” even though the policy is not a “term” policy. 

But these prices assume the insureds are healthy and have answered health questions to prove it!  And that is not the case with these kinds of insurance policies! So, if insurance companies sell life insurance where they have no idea of the condition of the insureds’ health, they must jack up the ever-increasing one-year term rate per $1000, perhaps as much as 100%, to cover the extra deaths which are sure to occur.   That’s why someone who can answer health questions and can qualify for a “regular” insurance policy, and who might have a need for life insurance, should purchase a “regular” policy, and not one of the cockamamie plans touted on TV.

(For those of you who were able to digest this, here’s one more thing to think about.  All level premium “whole life” type insurance involves overpaying in the policy’s early years, paying more than that internal one-year term rate mentioned above for those years, and underpaying, paying less than that one-year term rate for those years, in the policy’s later years.  By the time the “underpaying” starts occurring, there is sufficient “cash value” built up by the “overpaying” so that less one-year term insurance need be purchased internally to provide, along with the accumulated cash value, the policy’s death benefit.  By age 95 or 100, there is usually no need for the internal purchase of very much one-year term insurance at all to flesh out the death benefit.  By then, it’s usually all in the cash value.  That’s what “whole life” insurance is.  Don’t blow this by the typical insurance sales person.  He or she won’t understand what you’re talking about.  But at least you should know the facts.)
JL

Kathleen Parker on Barr and Bee 

Rosanne Barr was fired for what she tweeted and Samantha Bee was chastised for what she said on her TV show.  Barr is a bigot and her tweet showed her to be one.  That’s easy to understand whether one agrees with her or not.  But Bee was chastised for using the “c _ _ _” word in relation to Ivanka Trump.  With her late evening program entitled “Full Frontal,” what can viewers expect?  Mr. Rogers? Sesame Street?  Analyzing it is not so simple.  It goes a little deeper into the question of vulgarity and more importantly, femininity.  Only a woman can be called a “c_ _ _.”   And there is no better woman than Kathleen Parker to get to the bottom of this.  Don’t pass judgement on anyone until you read this moderate, sane, Republican woman’s recent Washington Post column.  Click here to read her column.

JL

 
Down in "Old Kaintuck" 

I read the other day where this kid, the valedictorian of his high school graduation class in a town deep in the coal country of southeastern Kentucky, included the following quote in his valedictory speech. 

“Don’t just get involved. Fight for your seat at the table. Better yet, fight for a seat at the head of the table.”  

The crowd cheered when he announced these words of Donald J. Trump!  Surely, it was quite inspirational to the graduates!  As he concluded his address, though, he apologized to the audience.  The quote, he explained, was not from the President, but actually were the words of his predecessor, Barack Obama.  The audience was puzzled.  Some even booed.  Hey, don’t worry.  It happened in Kentucky.   There’s hope!  Sort of like the horse that ran a surprising second in the Belmont Stakes.

JL

Sound of Thunder 

(Originally posted on this blog in 2011)

Most of you have probably heard of, if not read, Ray Bradbury’s 1952 science fiction short story, Sound of Thunder, probably the most widely circulated piece of that genre ever written.  In it, men travel back in time on a hunting expedition and are offered the opportunity to kill dinosaurs, but only carefully selected ones which the “tour guides” know are about to die of natural causes anyway.  The hunters are cautioned not to step off the walkway along which they have been guided because if they did so, they would be stepping back into a pre-historic time where they unknowingly might do damage which could affect the future.  One hunter panics, veers off of the walkway crushing a butterfly with his boot, an act which so alters evolution that when the group returns to the present time, everything is slightly different, words are spelled a little differently, the world seems harsher and most importantly, the potential despot who was about to lose a Presidential election wins it.  If this whets your appetite, read the story.

I relate this because every time I visit our nearby nature preserves and refuges (Green Cay, Wakodahatchee, Loxahatchee or Gumbo Limbo) which permit you to walk through their flora and fauna on elevated wooden walkways, I am reminded of the walkways in Bradbury’s story.  For example, as you walk along the Green Cay walkways (particularly toward sunset), your surroundings cannot be very different than those surrounding the hunters in Sound of Thunder on that day when one of them stepped off of the walkway and killed a butterfly.

JL

HOW TO BE ALERTED TO FUTURE BLOG POSTINGS.

Many readers of this blog are alerted by Email every time a new posting appears.  If you wish to be added to that Email list, just let me know by sending me an email at Riart1@aol.com.

HOW TO CONTACT ME or CONTRIBUTE MATERIAL TO JACKSPOTPOURRI.com 

Just send it to me by email at Riart1@aol.com.   YOU ALSO CAN SEND ME YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS TO BE PUBLISHED IN THIS BLOG AS WELL AS YOUR COMMENTS AT THAT ADDRESS.  (Comments can also be made by clicking on the "Post a Comment" link at the blog's end.)

MOBILE DEVICE ACCESS.

DID YOU KNOW THAT www.jackspotpourri.com IS ALSO AVAILABLE ON YOUR MOBILE DEVICES IN A MODIFIED, EASY-TO-READ, FORMAT?   

HOW TO VIEW OLDER POSTINGS.                                                

To view older postings on this blog, just click on the appropriate date in the “Blog Archive” midway down the column off to the right, or scroll down until you see the “Older Posts” notation at the very bottom of this posting.  The “Search Box” in the right side of the posting also may be helpful in locating a posting topic for which you are looking.

HOW TO FORWARD POSTINGS.

To send this posting to a friend, or enemy for that matter, whom you think might be interested in it, just click on the envelope with the arrow on the "Comments" line directly below, enabling you to send them an Email providing a link directly to this posting.  You might also want to let me know their Email address so that they may be alerted to future postings.

Jack Lippman