I discovered Lew Rockwell in 2003 and immediately knew I had found a kindred spirit. Now after a few years I see there are many, many contributors to the site. It is very encouraging to see that there are so many people who believe as I do, that government is a brutal thief, nothing more, nothing less. I can’t recall how many contributions to Lew Rockwell I have read but it is surely in the thousands. Yet I can’t recall a single one dealing with something that I personally think is one of the most unfair, anti-free market concepts of our day. I’m talking about the law that says I have to have car insurance for a vehicle I already own. If I want to finance a car and the financer wishes to make insurance a stipulation of the contract, I have no problem with that. That is the right to contract. But if I own my car outright, how can a government dictate that I have to buy a certain product? Insurance companies sell insurance. They are not run by the government. They sell a product, insurance. Now I have no problem with insurance. It is a great concept. But to make it a law that it must be purchased is outrageous. And I have read articles (not on Lew Rockwell) where people bitching about the government were thankful it had not come to a point where the government was telling us what products to buy. HELLO!! It’s been going on for years. It’s called car insurance. It is a product sold by insurance companies. Is there a law that says you have to buy life insurance? Is there a law that says you have to buy health insurance?
Ah forget it. I’m so tired of law after law after law. Laws have taken the fun out of being alive. This insurance law has been around for a very long time. When I learned of it when I got my license in 1977, I couldn’t believe it. What was even more shocking to me was that nobody else seemed to have a problem with it. That was when I was starting to get the notion that I had a problem with authority. Yeah, maybe it is a “good idea” to have insurance. SO WHAT!!
It’s also a good idea to save money and not go into debt. It’s also a good idea to look both ways before crossing the street. I couldn’t help but laugh when I got my first no insurance ticket and the citation was for “failure to show proof of financial responsibility." I was floored! Government is the single most unproductive institution on the planet. It produces nothing. What it spends it has stolen from someone else. It continuously has to take more to pay for its own mistakes. For the government to fine me for financial irresponsibility is a joke!
When you get your insurance bill do you think they have just pulled that number out of the air? Do you think they get it off of a government provided table of insurance rates? What they do is get as much information about you as they can, and then they figure the odds. They quantify how likely you are to have an accident. If they charge you a low amount, then they are betting that the odds are against you being in an accident. If they charge you a high amount, they are betting that the odds favor you being in an accident. Why do you think rates are higher for young inexperienced drivers and for people who drive fast sports cars? AND YOU ARE REQUIRED BY LAW TO BUY IT!
That my friends is legalized gambling.
And now I see insurance companies providing a cash incentive not to have a wreck. What kind of craziness is this? As if that incentive never existed before. Can’t you see how stupid they think we are? Are you in good hands? The words “state farm” should send a cold chill down your back.
November 3, 2006
