To distinguish it from stigmatized wagering on the demise of some arbitrary policy-holder, various prohibitions were instituted against purchase of insurance on the lives of unrelated strangers. In other words, life insurance was successfully rendered palatable for mass market purchase by presenting it as a product whereby you might “personalize” your prudence with regard to those closest to you, most generally, bereaved family members. But once life insurance had become a mass commodity, then the standardized narrative unraveled.

Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis …, loc. 355