Mission Viejo Issues
Ivy League Elites Ruin Much More than Higher Education
By Stacy Holmes
Writing in The Atlantic David Brooks recounts the history of admissions to Harvard, Yale and Princeton Universities as well as other elite colleges in the United States. We will capture much of Brooks’s research and commentary here as a basis to see beyond to some of the ways elite colleges and universities might repair the damage they have done to education and our society.
From the late 1800s to the mid twentieth century White, protestant men were groomed in exclusive prep schools and sent off to finishing school at the ivies to prepare for elite positions in business, politics, law and banking. The connections were more important than the curriculum. Membership in the right campus social club was more important than studying.
James Conant, Harvard’s President from 1933-53, led admissions criteria away from heredity toward intelligence.
Previous Issues Articles
A New Normal? More
New Class of Drugs Ozempic More
Statistics Biden/Harris v. Trump/Pence More
ADA 34th Anniversary More
Another Trump Bankruptcy? More
Rising Condo Insurance Rates More
Education Levels: Democrats / Republicans More
Dark Ages Voting for Judges More
Disaster in MV Capital Budget More
God & Country Documentary Review More
Preparing Police To Confront Shooters More
Growth of Democratic Party in Mission Viejo More
You Are What You Eat Nutrition Study More
Fewer Millionaire Tax Audits More
The Candidates We Deserve More
3,699 Homeless Mission Viejo Students More
Elon Musk’s Windfall of Taxpayer Money More
Hardening the Perimeter More
Fewer Millionaire Tax Audits More
Oso Creek Parking Structure October 2023 More
Insurance Giants Hypocrisy More
Mission Viejo’s 60+ Taxi Service September 2023 More
MV Political Demographics September 2023 MORE
Homelessness in Mission Viejo September 2023 More
A Note from the Managing Editor August 2023 More
Insurance Giants’ Environmental Hypocrisy
By Stacy Holmes
Farmers, State Farm, Allstate and AIG announced major reductions in the number of new homeowners insurance policies they will approve in California. Florida and other areas across the country have seen the same pull back by insurance carriers. The insurers all cite rising catastrophe exposure as their reason for curtailing insurance.
PublicCitizen.org reports that these insurers themselves are major contributors to the climate crisis. Insurance companies are causing the very environmental catastrophes that prompt them to stop offering insurance in areas hit hardest by those environmental disasters. Insurance companies have not cut back on their massive investments in fossil fuel companies and have supported the expansion of fossil fuel production. Insurers are walking away from homeowners while they continue to underwrite fossil fuels. Fossil fuel companies cannot operate without insurance. Thus, insurance companies support continued destruction of our environment when they continue to underwrite new fossil fuel projects. For example, AIG, along with several other insurers, is insuring the Freeport LNG terminal in Texas. More than 140 organizations have contacted insurance companies on the anniversary of an explosion at an LNG terminal owned by Freeport LNG.
Major insurance companies are also major investors in fossil fuel companies. The California Department of Insurance shows that State Farm alone had $30 Billion invested in fossil fuel companies. AIG had $24 Billion and Berkshire Hathaway $20 Billion.
Meanwhile, the insurance industry set a record with a $1 Trillion policyholder surplus in 2021 and similarly high surplus in 2022. Particularly in California, premiums have gone up while deductibles have been increased and coverage limits have been lowered. California US Congress representative Adam Schiff, together with a long list of governmental leaders, has contacted the US Treasury Department to request their study of the impact of insurance companies’ refusal to offer new homeowner policies in California. He also requests that the Treasury Department require insurance companies to disclose publicly their investments in fossil fuel companies.
Read more about PublicCitizen.org research and Adam Schiff’s action at the links below:
https://www.citizen.org/article/insurers-fossil-fuels-and-public-risk/
\https://schiff.house.gov/imo/media/doc/letter_to_the_usdepartmentoftreasuryfederalinsuranceofficefio.pdf