If the Internet Had Existed Back Then, Primitive Mutual Aid Would Not Have All Evolved into Financial-Model Insurance Companies

Modern insurance companies belong to finance, and gathering and managing insurance funds is their core business. But if we look back at the development of mutual aid, we find that the emergence and growth of the modern financial insurance-company model was essentially a helpless choice forced by past technological backwardness. If the internet had existed back then, not all of it would necessarily have evolved into the financial-model insurance we have today.

In an age without the internet, it was simply too hard for people to band together for mutual aid and jointly withstand life's risks. There were no convenient channels of communication—gathering people and notifying them of news were both troublesome—and there was no reliable way to deliver funds or disclose accounts. Facing all kinds of technological constraints with no other option, people could only entrust their trust and their money to specialized institutions. Over time, this model of centralized fund management and unified operation gradually developed into the modern insurance company we know today, and fund operation became one of insurance's most central features—it is a standard part of the financial industry.

But if the internet had existed in ancient times, mutual aid would by no means necessarily have evolved into financial-model modern insurance. With convenient network technology, everything would be different. People would no longer have to hand over their money and their trust to a fixed organization in advance; when they ran into difficulty, they could rally online at any time and help one another. We could verify the circumstances of those being helped online, complete transfers of assistance online at regular intervals, and all income, expenditure, and assistance information could be publicly disclosed, transparent and checkable throughout. There would be no platform company whose core is gathering and managing insurance funds. This model is exactly what online mutual aid platforms like KangAi Commune look like today.

So online mutual aid is neither an upgrade of modern insurance nor an industry innovation; it is a brand-new path of mutual aid opened up by relying on new internet technology, and still more a return to the original intent of people helping one another.

Perhaps this path of mutual aid has already struggled to enter the mainstream, and is not as mature, widespread, or fast-growing as the traditional insurance model. But technology emerged precisely to give people more choices. One more warm way of mutual aid, one more path to secure one's life—that in itself is something very meaningful and worth trying.