If There Are 1,000 People, Each of Whom Owns a $100,000

question 49

Essay

If there are 1,000 people, each of whom owns a $100,000 house, and they each stand a 1/1,000 chance each year of suffering a fire that will totally destroy their house, what is the minimum that they would have to pay annually for fire insurance?
E.L.= 0.001($100,000) + 0.999($0) = $100.00.Since the expected loss for each individual is $100 per year, the minimum that each would have to pay is $100.00 a year, in fact, given the probability of 1 in a 1000 homeowners in this group suffering a fire each year, at $100 each, on average, there should be just enough to compensate the person suffering the fire.

---

Definitions:

Cognitive Schema

A mental structure that represents some aspect of the world, organizing categories of information and the relationships among them, aiding in understanding and predicting the world.

First Habits

The initial routine behaviors or practices that individuals develop, which can form the foundation for later patterns of behavior.

Object Permanence

The realization that people and objects exist even when they cannot be seen.

Goal-Directed Behavior

Behavior in which several schemes are combined and coordinated to generate a single act to solve a problem.