1:the guy making 8 bucks an hour can only afford minimum coverage, the insurance provides no coverage his car.
2:if we require people get insurance anytime they may potentially put others at risk then why isn't it required when you purchase a firearm? or alcohol? or rat poison? or a pet dog? or a baseball bat? The list goes on forever.
3: The cost of providing the car insurance is far below the cost of providing it when you exclude a few bad actors. (to date for me I've paid in over 20 grand, 0 return) Why is the rest of society providing a subsidy to people who can't drive? it isn't an accident when you change lanes every 30 seconds, tailgate, and drive aggressively. Why is society providing a subsidy for people with expensive cars as well? I've never had a 'accident' and yet I'm expected to pay a company for a product that gives me little value until I die, and while someone who has a 'accident' pays slightly more monthly than me I feel I cover far to much of the burden for them.
4:I drive a datsun in vintage racing events, my skill is far above the average driver. I can tailgate at 90 miles an hour with drum breaks. Why aren't my rates lower? beacuse the free market isn't allowed to do it's work on insurance companies due to a regulatory structure that was put in by insurance companies. Why does my credit score count by my skill does not? regulatory capture.
Mandatory liability insurance has actually been proposed for firearms. I imagine the reason it's not actually law is because rabid NRA types see any such requirement as an unconstitutional infringement of their 2nd Amendment rights.
As for the rest, the risk is far lower. How many people are injured in baseball bat accidents each year? How much property damage is caused by dogs? How often does alcohol result in damage to a third party beyond the culprit's ability to pay, outside of alcohol-related car accidents?
Insurance costs vary enormously with your demonstrated risk, which includes your driving record. If you're a safe driver, and demonstrate it with a low accident and traffic citation rate, you pay much less than somebody who crashes and gets pulled over a lot.
Your statement that you can safely tailgate at 90MPH with drum brakes makes me think that you're actually one of those unsafe drivers who merely thinks he's safe because he's gotten lucky so far. No amount of skill is going to save you from human reaction times, or the guy in front of you having superior brakes. If you are in fact skilled, then your skill does count, to the extent that you can demonstrate it in a concrete manner.
Not a single accident or moving violation ever, I pay 120 a month for minimum coverage because I have shitty credit. What I do on a racetrack under controlled conditions is entirely different than what I do on the road. I keep my stopping distance between me and the car in front of me.
Your credit score counts because credit score is a good predictor of accident risk. Apparently nobody really understands why, but that's how it is.
Insurance is all about trying to predict the future, which is tough. The tools are imperfect. But they're decent, and the data supports using credit score as a factor.
1:the guy making 8 bucks an hour can only afford minimum coverage, the insurance provides no coverage his car.
2:if we require people get insurance anytime they may potentially put others at risk then why isn't it required when you purchase a firearm? or alcohol? or rat poison? or a pet dog? or a baseball bat? The list goes on forever.
3: The cost of providing the car insurance is far below the cost of providing it when you exclude a few bad actors. (to date for me I've paid in over 20 grand, 0 return) Why is the rest of society providing a subsidy to people who can't drive? it isn't an accident when you change lanes every 30 seconds, tailgate, and drive aggressively. Why is society providing a subsidy for people with expensive cars as well? I've never had a 'accident' and yet I'm expected to pay a company for a product that gives me little value until I die, and while someone who has a 'accident' pays slightly more monthly than me I feel I cover far to much of the burden for them.
4:I drive a datsun in vintage racing events, my skill is far above the average driver. I can tailgate at 90 miles an hour with drum breaks. Why aren't my rates lower? beacuse the free market isn't allowed to do it's work on insurance companies due to a regulatory structure that was put in by insurance companies. Why does my credit score count by my skill does not? regulatory capture.