Even as the rioters in Minneapolis and other cities savaged businesses, they claimed that they weren't doing anything wrong because insurance companies would come in and save the day.  The fact that these leftists had such faith in a capitalist institution would have been charming were it not for the fact that they were wrong.  For most of those people whose livelihoods these little Marxists destroyed, there is no insurance coming to save the day.

A superb illustration of this "the insurance will pay" mindset comes from a video in which Kaitlin Bennett interviews, and challenges, two young Black Lives Matter–supporters.  The young woman does most of the talking, while her boyfriend, with the earring, the carefully arranged puff of hair, and the artfully unbuttoned shirt, listens supportively.  They're so focused on "feelings" that they cannot comprehend notions such as reason, the rule of law, or a functioning society.  And then there's that insurance point.

"Do you think AutoZone deserved to be looted and burned to the ground?" Bennett asks.

"Well, it is a big corporation, and they have insurance," answers Ms. Leftist.

A minute or two later, the airheads insist that it would be different if someone came to their house to loot and burn because "at that point it becomes personal."  Bennett asks the obvious question, which is whether having a workplace burned to the ground, depriving employees of a job and the owner of a business, isn't "personal," too.  The answer is mind-boggling:

"But they'll be compensated," Ms. Leftist says.  "You won't be compensated if your house burned down, but they'll be compensated from the company."

A stunned Bennett asks politely if Ms. Leftist understands how insurance works.

"They have insurance.  Like if they were to have a regular fire, they have insurance.  So they can support their workers.  If they're a good company, they'll do that."

As far as Ms. Leftist is concerned, big companies have deep pockets and insurance, so anything one does to them is okay.

What Ms. Leftist cannot comprehend is that (a) most of the businesses destroyed weren't big companies and (b) many of the businesses cannot rely on insurance, either because they were such small businesses that they didn't bother to be insured or because the insurance companies are refusing claims.

Even the New York Times wrote about the helpless small businesses that the rioters destroyed.  In Minneapolis:

"I was outside saying, 'Please, I don't have insurance!'" said Hussein Aloshani, an immigrant from Iraq, waving his arms in frustration as he recounted the scene Friday night outside the deli his family owns.

Moreover, even those Minneapolis businesses that thought they were insured are discovering that their insurance won't help:

One day after rioters destroyed the Sports Dome retail complex in St. Paul, a construction crew hired by the city knocked the building down because it was dangerously unstable.

Then the city presented the property owners with a $140,000 bill for what it would cost to haul away the debris.

"We were really upset about that," said property owner Jay Kim, whose insurance policy covers a maximum of $25,000 in demolition costs. "We thought that was high. But we didn't know how much demolition would cost at the time."

Like dozens of other investors whose properties were severely damaged in the May riots, the Kim family was stunned to discover that the money it would collect from its insurance company for demolition won't come close to the actual costs of doing the job. Most policies limit reimbursement to $25,000 to $50,000, but contractors have been submitting bids of $200,000 to $300,000. In many cases, the price of the work is not much lower than the actual value of the property, records show.

Socialism is entirely predicated on "other people's money."  Like Ms. Leftist, they blithely assume they can destroy entire neighborhoods, and insurance money will pick up the pieces.  But as with everything else, the socialists are wrong about this, too.  Other people's money, including insurance companies' money, is finite, and leftism destroys that limited fund just as it destroys everything else.

Image: Philadelphia fire and life insurance co. Perpetual, by J. McGoffin at J.M. Butlers, in the Library of Congress.