How things change

Here's a stunning sentence from the 1965 barnburner Banking and Insurance in New Jersey: A History:

Of the eleven New Jersey life insurance companies, the Prudential is the largest and is, in fact, the third largest private company of any kind in the world in terms of assets, coming after American Telephone and Telegraph Company and the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company in New York.

No longer true, but it gives you an idea of the place of insurance in the order of things. As of today, about one dollar in ten or eleven goes to insurance cover of one sort or another. And that excludes pensions and social security, etc. However you slice it, the amount of money set aside for things that might happen is pretty stunning.