Just In Case...

Hello again Cyberspace.

I have to pay my car insurance today. It's a little over $150/month, which I'm told is a pretty standard rate for a relatively new driver. I've owned a car for a little over a year and I've obviously paid insurance the whole time. It always seemed a little strange to me - paying money to a company just in case something happens. I've always been a proponent of the idea that you shouldn't be scared to try things. That fear exists only to be overcome - not to be succumbed to. Insurance seems to go against that idea completely.

Let's take a moment and really think about what an insurance company does (I'm mostly going to focus on car insurance). Whether it's car, home or health insurance (not a problem here in the wonderful world of socialism in Canada) you are paying for a what-if.

Car accidents happen everywhere, every day. But if you speak to individual drivers, judging by the people I know, there are probably about 45% who have been in an automobile accident and 25% (again, just people I know) who have been in more than one car accident. So that means 55% of the people out there on the road are paying for literally nothing. They pay the car insurance company...the car insurance company takes that money and pays for the 25% to fix their cars and go get into another accident. And profiting from perpetuating the cycle.


So what's the solution? How can society function without insurance? Not many of us can afford to just go fix our car if we are involved in a collision. While the idea of giving everyone a free ride (sink or swim - if you crash, you're responsible to fix your own vehicle) is great, I don't know how it would work. I mean, what if the accident wasn't your fault? This is essentially why everyone is forced to have car insurance. Until the day when we all have cars that run on auto-pilot, I don't see a way around having car insurance...otherwise the court system would be so tied up with civil suits over 'it's not my fault, he should pay' that it would be pointless to do away with it. I'm sure there's another solution, but nothing feasible in our society the way it is now.

Here's my idea - it's a little out there.Why not assimilate all private insurance companies into the government? If we are going to force an insurance system on the population, why not have the profits go into the needs of our country as opposed to into the grubby paws of a profiteer? This would allow for much more direct regulation for pricing. I would propose a stair-step type system. First year drivers are more likely to have an accident and are already bound by some rules that more experienced drivers don't have. They pay the amount at the bottom of the staircase, much like the way it is right now with private insurance companies. After a year of driving accident-free, their rate is lowered and so on and so forth, until we near the top of the pyramid, at which point an accident-free driver (I'm sure it would some type of mathematical algorithm to determine the exact amount of time, but for now we'll say ten years) no longer has to pay insurance. This way, the more dangerous people on the road will be less likely to want to drive; and if they do, Canada gets some help with the budget.

Just a thought I had when I woke up this morning. Maybe it would work, maybe it wouldn't, but it seems like a great idea to me right now. I look forward to hearing what you have to say.

Peace and Love
The Critical Stranger

As always thoughts, comments and suggestions are encouraged and appreciated!