Participants:
Series Code: LI
Program Code: LI000345B
|
00:04 Welcome back to the Liberty Insider.
00:07 Before the break I was talking to my last guest 00:10 about his starting a program called 00:15 'The Manly Man' program. 00:17 Well, this is another guest and, 00:19 welcome, Steig. 00:21 Thank you, Lincoln. 00:22 You're my guest this time, Steig Westerberg. 00:24 And I have to even look at it 00:26 because I want to get your name right. 00:28 And there is a connection to my last guest, 00:30 but you are the man of the moment. 00:34 The Manly Man program, 00:36 I think is needed in society 00:38 and the irony is the last time I saw you and we spoke, 00:43 we were both attending a Montana Men's Group... 00:46 Yes. Meeting, weekend meeting. 00:48 Yeah. 00:49 Actually, it was in a hut, up near Bear Canyon, 00:52 wasn't that in... 00:54 Bear Canyon Ski Lodge. In Montana. 00:56 Yeah, Bear Canyon Ski Lodge. 00:57 That was a Manly Man get together. 00:59 Yes, it was. 01:00 But something came up there and you have a burden on it 01:02 that I want to discuss with you. 01:04 You're the CEO and the founder of Altoserv. 01:06 Yes. 01:08 A software company to deal with information... 01:13 Yes. Dissemination. 01:14 In fact, as I was joking, you probably know 01:17 or could speak a lot of the email controversies 01:20 swirling around this country. 01:21 I could. 01:23 And how the service work? Yeah. 01:24 But what does you, 01:27 just tell me briefly the background 01:30 that you have in computers 01:33 and information dissemination 01:35 because you've had some very successful companies I know. 01:37 I have, well, 01:40 so I am a bit of a technologist 01:42 from a perspective of, you know, 01:45 coming up with solutions to problems that exist. 01:49 And Altoserv is focused on helping consumers 01:53 be prepared for disasters. 01:55 Yeah. 01:56 Just this last week, we had hurricane Matthew, 02:00 sweep through the eastern part of the US. 02:02 Literally, thousands of people 02:04 ended up with significant damage. 02:07 They need to then go out and file insurance claims. 02:11 People often don't really understand 02:14 what it means to be prepared, 02:16 to have to do something like that. 02:18 And that's what Altoserv... 02:20 You facilitate their response 02:23 so that they can link to the right agencies 02:25 and the right sources of help or? 02:27 Well, specific... 02:28 How does it work exactly? 02:29 Specifically, Altoserv is all about 02:31 empowering the individual to be prepared. 02:34 So you gotta put yourself 02:36 in the position of imagining a loss. 02:40 Imagine that you went home from this business trip 02:43 and your house had burnt to the ground, 02:45 would you... 02:46 I do imagine that sometimes... 02:48 It does happen. 02:49 It happened to me, okay, 02:51 so, not that the house burnt to the ground 02:52 but we had a fire. 02:54 We've often gone on trips, and we were like a 100, 02:55 200 miles away... 02:57 Did we leave the oven on? Yes. 02:59 And so, you know, envision what would you want 03:03 to have proof of, in order to substantiate the loss... 03:06 I always see the end. 03:07 And even to remember everything that should be in the loss, 03:10 you know, we are always buying things 03:13 and having things placed around the house 03:15 that literally you forget about, 03:17 they just kinda fade into the background. 03:18 You know it's there, 03:20 did you remember what it was, 03:22 the make, the model, when you purchased it? 03:24 How much you paid for it? 03:25 These are all crucial things to getting an accurate and... 03:29 So you help them establish a database of all their... 03:33 We focus on it from the consumer perspective, right. 03:36 So now, you know, the consumers need 03:39 somebody to enable them and power them 03:41 to understand what they have. 03:44 All this information is digitally stored 03:47 on our cloud based system 03:49 and then when it comes time for a loss, 03:52 which inevitably will occur to everybody, 03:57 we take that information and we immediately price it, 04:01 we have over 3000 retailers 04:04 that are participating in our system. 04:08 And so based upon make, model, description, 04:11 how much you paid for it, et-cetera, we will price it, 04:13 we can do that instantaneously, 04:15 whereas traditional approaches 04:18 require you to write your loss down on a piece of paper, 04:21 it gets mailed off some place, 04:23 weeks later, sometimes longer, 04:26 they will come back with a value. 04:28 And establishing value is crucial 04:31 because that's what determines the size of the cheque 04:33 that you're gonna get out of the insurance company. 04:36 If you have purchased, you know, 04:38 a shirt and it cost you $80 04:41 and they come back in, valued at $50 04:44 and you've already purchased that replacement at $80, 04:47 you're out that delta. 04:48 And insurance adjusters are flexible, 04:51 they're wonderful people but, you know, 04:54 they have parameters placed around them 04:57 and they have hundreds of claims 04:59 that they're working through, each adjuster. 05:01 Hundreds of claims that 05:03 they're constantly working and so, 05:05 you know, they stay within parameters 05:07 and so it's best to that their claim get valued right away. 05:10 It's an interesting concept, 05:12 in conjunction with end of the world scenario 05:15 or the disasters at a company in times... 05:18 Yes. 05:19 People are most famously, 05:24 moments, letter they sent... 05:26 Yes. 05:27 You know, they're putting up with six months worth of food 05:28 and all of... 05:30 Those, the things you could argue, 05:31 could do but what... 05:33 Yeah. 05:34 What you're saying is probably 05:35 a more immediately practical thing to do 05:37 expecting some sort of... 05:38 Yeah. 05:40 Dislocation, short of the mountains falling and the... 05:43 Right. 05:45 And the law's actual appearance. 05:46 This is... And when you... 05:48 A very good program. 05:49 And when you have gone through that sort of a disaster, 05:52 it feels like it is an end time disaster. 05:54 Oh, I've heard too. 05:56 Okay, I mean, and, you know, so the goal, of course, 05:59 is to ensure that you're not victimized twice. 06:01 You've already been a victim once 06:03 by whatever the accident was, 06:05 whatever the peril was, 06:06 you then don't want to be in a situation 06:09 where you are not able to get fully recovered and rapidly. 06:13 Yeah. 06:14 Now it's a wonderful concept and, you know, 06:16 even before our discussion that day, 06:18 I didn't fully understand what you're doing, it's... 06:20 Yeah. 06:21 It's not just a good business, 06:23 it's good common sense 06:25 and it does connect with preparing for the future 06:28 which is what we're all trying to do. 06:29 Yes. 06:31 Christians generally, in living in town where the end 06:33 and on religious liberty we're, 06:36 we have liberty now 06:37 but you can't take it for granted, 06:39 you have to prepare... 06:40 Yeah. 06:41 For when it may be under more open threat 06:44 and have a contingency plan. 06:46 That is correct. 06:47 So what do you think? 06:51 Now I'll ask you personally, 06:52 I know you're not a survivalist. 06:53 No. 06:55 You're a fellow Christian, Seventh day Adventist. 06:56 Yes. 06:57 What you've put in essence, 07:00 part of this into practise through a business and... 07:03 But what is it that struck you about the age that we live in? 07:07 Do you think this is the time of peril 07:09 and how do we deal with it? 07:11 Well, it is. Instantly. 07:12 It is a time of peril and the peril, of course, 07:15 is greater in certain regions of the world. 07:19 You know, we read about the rapid events 07:22 and the horrible events that will happen, 07:25 in books of Daniel and Revelation 07:27 and guess what? 07:28 That is happening today, right now. 07:31 It does seem to me... 07:32 Yeah, in certain parts of the world. 07:33 Yeah, now here specifically in the US, 07:36 we see problems where laws and agencies are crafting rules 07:43 distinctly different than was 07:45 that are restricting religious freedom. 07:49 That's not quite as severe as, you know, 07:53 being under threat of having 07:54 your head removed by a terrorist. 07:56 Well, no, but... 07:57 But nonetheless... 07:59 One thing can lead to another. Yeah, exactly. 08:00 It may not be totally separate but that may be the end point 08:03 even for an innocuous loss. 08:04 Absolutely, and I see pressures on all fronts. 08:09 I feel that we're very far down that particular path. 08:13 You know, it's become almost trendy 08:15 to talk about the Nazi era 08:18 and some of the things that happened. 08:20 But I think in a way familiarity has bred ignorance. 08:23 Mm-hm. 08:25 Just a couple of days ago, 08:26 I was listening to a program 08:28 where they were some survivors of all of that 08:31 and they said something 08:32 that's often not thought much about. 08:35 They said that it still troubles them, 08:38 they can't really get their head around, 08:41 how a western civilized rational supposedly society 08:47 could establish this process not just to kill people 08:52 because that's happening all the time unfortunately, 08:54 the Middle East and violence in the streets 08:56 even in the US cities, 08:57 there's violence, murder and mayhem... 08:59 Yeah. In many ways around us. 09:00 But they said the fact that it was without much emotion, 09:03 it was done in a bureaucratic way... 09:05 Mm-hm. 09:06 Cold bloodedly in a western democracy 09:09 and civilised people. 09:11 Yeah. 09:12 And by inference that means 09:14 that it's not impossible anyway. 09:17 And there's things that 09:19 we need to remind ourselves as a community 09:22 or else we can drift into that... 09:23 Absolutely. 09:25 It's really, 09:26 it's the bureaucratic anonymity of Groundswell Movements 09:31 that become institutionalized 09:33 that could do such a bloodless thing. 09:35 Yes, yeah. 09:36 And I know, know your burden 09:39 is to use the power of the internet 09:43 and the new communications tools 09:44 to keep reminding people... 09:46 Yeah. 09:47 Of their rights, their freedoms 09:48 and to keep a public view 09:52 on some of these legal developments 09:54 that could otherwise, sort of, 09:56 secretly develop and then maybe, 09:59 suddenly come upon us 10:01 or even then coming upon us suddenly. 10:03 Yes. 10:05 Well, you are absolutely right, 10:06 what really kind of got me focused 10:08 on this aspect of things was a senate bill 10:12 in California focused on 10:15 restricting the way their schools, 10:19 private, non-public I mean, 10:21 I think it's important for people to understand, 10:23 these are private institutions, 10:27 and the lack of ability for them to be religious 10:31 in the way that their tenant should teach them to be. 10:35 And so historically, religious organizations 10:38 like this have been exempt from laws 10:41 that are largely in a secular world 10:44 viewed as discriminatory. 10:48 And this bill was an attempt to start picking a way at that, 10:52 right, and start removing some of those protections. 10:55 And one of the rationales for doing that is that 10:59 these schools take government money. 11:01 Yeah. 11:02 And that they're publicly accredited 11:04 and they're open to all people. 11:06 Yeah. 11:07 Because it is worth mentioning 11:08 and what you say is even worse 11:10 than you could describe it quickly. 11:12 But it's worth saying that churches 11:15 and their core operations are still well protected. 11:18 Yeah. 11:20 These were educational institutions... 11:21 Right, the educational institutions. 11:22 Not the insurance itself. 11:24 Yes, and this is sort of, and out there, 11:25 thing that's semi public, I mean, it is public but, 11:28 you know, as far as structurally, 11:30 it's semi public. 11:31 Right. 11:33 And they are very vulnerable 11:34 and you're right to be troubled about this. 11:35 We're gonna have programs on this in the future. 11:37 We fully expect while this particular 11:40 initiative was defeated, 11:41 it will come back and come back. 11:42 Yes. 11:44 And so the intention to meddle 11:45 in the autonomy of church schools is very real 11:48 and the probability of its quite success is very high. 11:52 So we need to counter this. 11:54 See, I view this situation, 11:58 I view that education is a highly personal choice 12:02 between the students and their parents. 12:04 And they make a choice for higher education 12:09 while thinking very carefully about 12:11 what their own personal belief system is. 12:13 So they're choosing to go to a private Christian school 12:17 that has the beliefs that they embody in their life. 12:19 That's a very good point, 12:21 the expectation of the families, 12:23 sending a child there is not what the government 12:26 or some government politicians are wanting in this case, 12:30 it's voting the very will... 12:32 In a certain sense, the will of the people. 12:34 Yes, yeah, they absolutely are. 12:37 And so in this particular case, 12:39 my belief is that the people are buying a bill of goods, 12:44 they're paying for a certain of level of education 12:47 and they should be able to get what they're purchasing. 12:50 It's been said and I think it was in the 'Good Book' 12:53 that a house divided against itself cannot stand. 12:57 As we look to the Middle East today, 12:59 that is the epidemy of that comment 13:03 because not only is there an undeniable and in fact, 13:08 extreme persecution of Christians, 13:11 that the different people groups within Islam 13:13 in the Middle East are at each other's throats. 13:16 This is a sad situation, 13:19 a situation that does illustrate 13:21 an end time scenario of every man's hand 13:24 being against his brother 13:25 and of great troubles and persecutions coming. 13:29 Somehow, the West and Christians 13:32 from areas outside this area of persecution 13:35 need to bring the charity and love 13:39 and accommodation that Christ represented 13:43 and need to bring what amounts to true religious freedom. 13:49 For Liberty Insider, this is Lincoln Steed. |
Revised 2016-12-26