Kevin Hamilton

It's cause it's an Epic...you know, an Electronic Pic.

I don't know why, but I laughed so hard at that ^

Well that E-pic was Epic (yeah I know)

Then the title would have been "Hallmark was kind of in the 50s"
The meaning is a little different.

Hallmark was kind of in the 50s?

I'm sick of people overusing epic. They think it sounds cool so they use it when for everything.
Use it when it's appropriate, it will have more meaning that way.

It's still a scam. If I could keep all my premium payments, I'd be way ahead of any accident costs.

@rustygb

And then you crash into a Lamborghini.

I pay $1200 a year to insure a G35 Coupe. I doubt very seriously, that I could crash that car in any capacity, and have been better off just keeping the cash. Plus, I never look at insurance as insurance against me crashing into something, it's for the other assh**e who runs a red light and T-Bones you.

@rustygb: Really?

Let's see, I get into a car crash, let's say it's my fault. They get hurt, I owe for their new car, repairs to my car, and any medical costs they may have, any lost wages, etc. I've got up to 250k worth of coverage for those things, which is a fairly decent amount. Lets say it all amounts to 100k total, which is pretty conservative for a serious accident.

At $50/mo, which is what I pay... that's 2000 months of payments, or 167 years. Even if I invest that with a good compound interest, it's still going to take an awful long time to break even. Then there's the whole "it's not always about just you" thing. You see, odds are good you won't have $100 grand to spend if you get into an accident. So if that's the case, how can you pay for their injuries?

Regular insurance keeps you from getting into accidents you can't pay for, and helps to mitigate serious accidents. For small accidents, you can always raise your deductible to lower your premiums if you'd like to carry some of the risk yourself.

The tables work in their favor because they aggregate the risk - it's this pooling of risk that allows them to make enough money in premiums and interest and dividends to cover the claims paid. You know, it's possible for both parties to a transaction to profit.

Liability insurance is based on realistic costs of property damage and costs of injury treatments. Property costs are kept in check through real competition. Health care doesn't seem to follow any rules of competition.
That's why automobile liability insurance is relatively cheap, while health insurance is out of reach of private individuals- only through group plans supplemented by employers can you afford it. Never mind the actual costs of health care. Even the rich have to have insurance because they can't stand exposure to health care bills in hundreds of thousands of dollars.
It's a system that got out of hand a while ago.

The aggregation works both ways. If you represent 100,000 people, having insurance makes sense. If you are an individual, why pay a monthly premium to protect against something that has astronomical chances of happening? I don't play the lottery, and I don't play the reverse protection insurance lottery either.

I guess there's no reasoning with you Rusty, I just hope you don't hit me on the road if you don't have insurance.

There's plenty of reasoning with me. You have just failed to deconstruct my logic and surrendered.

Most people will be involved in at least one car accident serious enough to cause injury or death in their lifetime. I wouldn't call those odds "astronomical".

@rustygb: Having a single (minor) car accident can incur tens of thousands in damages. Statistics show that most people will be in a car accident in their lives. Having insurance minimizes the disruption to one's life from accidents. Law requires that all vehicles be insured because people generally cannot be expected to be capable/responsible enough to save enough money on their own to cover the costs of accidents. Even rich people have to buy car insurance.

If you are in an accident of any sort, you may be out of work for an undetermined period of time as well as liable for huge costs which could make you lose your home, ruin your credit, and potentially ruin your life as you know it.