Financialized capitalism shifted from spreading risk to endorsing risk via self-insurance.

Evidence

In their authoritative work, sociologists Baker and Simon (2002) trace a momentous transition in financialized capitalism, from the postwar insurance model of risk spreading (established by protectionist counter-movements such as the New Deal or Clement Atlee’s social security reforms in Britain) to one of risk endorsing, with the explicit intention of reducing individual claims on collective social resources. This shift corresponds to our timeline of modern neoliberal subjectivity underpinning persistent ideas of the rationalizing homo economicus. Strengthened individual responsibility and self-insurance undergird this model, borne out in the dramatic reforms of pensions and late-life risks for large segments of society during recent waves of financialization, most notably in sweeping transitions from defined benefit to defined contribution schemes. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 274

Categorization

• XREF: Core to the reader’s causal chain: the defined-benefit-to-defined-contribution shift trains subjects to embrace uncertainty rather than seek security, feeding speculative voting. — connects to: Postwar socialized risk paradigms grew out of the struggle for collective autonomy — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 250; The erosion of pensions and benefits pushed households toward commercial financial products. — Neil Fligstein & Adam Goldstein, The Emergence of a Finance Culture in…, 55; Financialization replaced welfare-state collective security with individualized speculative insurance — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 92 (+7 more)
• DEFINE: The risk-spreading vs. risk-endorsing distinction is a key conceptual fork in the homo speculans argument.