 Yet another central question in contemporary debates in tort theory concerns the point of the entire practice of tort liability. In his classic discussion, Holmes suggested that the point of tort liability could not be compensation, because a tort action is an extremely inefficient mechanism for delivering compensation. Compared to such things as the workplace safety compensation schemes that were being introduced in Holmes’s time, the tort system is extremely expensive in its delivery of compensation to injured parties, because it spends so much time and money litigating disputes, and only delivers compensation to those who are injured by others who have been found to be wrongdoers and who can afford to pay. Holmes’s own proposal, echoed by some in more recent decades, is to require each person to carry their own insurance against injury or property damage (Atiyah 1997). A system of first-party private or social insurance would compensate injured parties based on the seriousness of the injury they suffered, rather than based on a distinction, which is arbitrary from the point of view of compensation, between injuries suffered as a result of the careless acts of others and all other injuries.