First Rule of Kidnapping Insurance

First rule of kidnapping insurance is you do not talk about kidnapping insurance. This American Life did a program on kidnapping. In some countries such business people and politicians are kidnapped for ransom. If you are kidnapped you would need someone to pay the ransom,if you buy kidnapping insurance the insurance company pays your ransom and helps negotiate your release.

So why not talk about the fact that you have kidnapping insurance, well of course you will be more likely to be a target of a kidnapping, since you probably are now able to pay a higher ransom through your insurance.

The spread of kidnapping insurance could actually increase the number of total kidnappings. Similarly a recent blog post (from a humourless lot) argues that it is a bad idea to try to buy the freedom of sex slaves, since it only increases the profits from enslaving people.

There isn't a good answer to either the problem of kidnapping or sex trafficking, but creating a market for it can make it worse.