I'll break ranks with you just slightly. It's my understanding that socialism includes some element of government ownership of production means in certain key industries, perhaps those that in economics are considered natural monopolies. This can occur by means of either social contract through free or fair elections or totalitarian force after revolution, whatever the means.
To me, insurance and socialism are analogous. I think of private insurance meaning the pooling of risks to indemnify an insured against perils enumerated in a policy declaration that may occur during the term of the contract between individual insureds and the insurer. It includes the concept of subrogation of the insurer to the rights of the insured against the tortfeasor, or as to the property that may have been only partially destroyed. By no means does this describe a ponzi scheme that smarterthanfew described. Ponzi is based on undercapitalization and a scheme for simple theft. Insurance has reserve requirements and are highly regulated. The payment on a policy does not depend on the ability of an insurer to con new investors.
