Insurance at Gunpoint is Sick and Evil

Guest Post by Eric Peters

There is nothing wrong with insurance … provided you can say no to it. Then it’s like any other thing you choose to buy.

Whether it makes sense to buy it – a subjective value judgment, by the way – isn’t the point. Exercise makes sense, too.

The point is – or should be – if insurance is something you want, or feel the need of – then you have the right to choose to buy it.

What you haven’t got is the right to force others to buy it – and thereby take away their free choice.

Insurance at gunpoint is dark and vicious. Anything that involves pointing guns at other people (who haven’t pointed a gun at you first) is necessarily a dark and evil thing. Someone – it doesn’t matter which specific individual does the wet work – is threatening to harm you unless you hand over money for something you do not wish to buy.

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In ordinary language that’s a mugging.

That the mugger may give you something you don’t want in exchange for violently separating you from the contents of your wallet doesn’t change the nature of what has happened anymore than a rapist picking up the check for the hotel room makes what he did something less than rape.

Take away the element of consent, freely given – and what you’re left with is an assault.

Insurance at gunpoint is also an economic disaster. Not for the insurance company – which is really a mafia, because it uses force to coerce people to buy its services. It makes people an offer they can’t refuse. The insurance mafia makes a fortune. But the people who are forced to buy “coverage” get screwed.

Does this even need elaboration?

What happens to the price of anything when “customers” can’t elect not to buy that thing? Sure, there are different insurance “families.” You can “shop” the Gambinos (GEICO) or go with the Genovese (Allstate).

But you can’t say no.

The insurance mafia knows the value of this – which is why they got into bed with the government, which serves as their Luca Brasi. Without the threat of Luca, many of us – me among them – would be able to decline insurance altogether when the premiums became onerous, especially when they became so for no legitimate reason.

In that scenario, you get a letter from them one day notifying you that they have increased your rates because you got a ticket for “speeding” – a manufactured offense against a statute that caused no loss to anyone’s person or property. You call them up and tell them to cancel the policy unless they rescind the rate increase.  Imagine the effect on the cost of insurance.

Which is why we are not allowed to say no.

But the most sinister aspect of mandatory car insurance is that it establishes the principle that forcing people to buy insurance generally is legitimate. Which is why we are now forced to buy health insurance, too.

And it is why, I am certain, a time will come when we are forced to buy home insurance (even if our home is completely paid-for) as well as life and gun insurance, too. There is a lot of money to be made – that is, taken at gunpoint.

And why not?

If we can be forced to buy car and health insurance is there any logically sound defense against being made to buy these and other kinds of insurance? What principle would work as a defense against such a proposal?

Never before in history have so many people been “covered.” It is no coincidence that so many of people are also living hand-to-mouth. Not because they have incurred losses. But because they are “covered.”

One of the reasons I am reluctant to buy a car to replace the truck my soon-to-be ex-wife now has is because it will mean paying got-damned insurance (and property taxes and registration fees). If I swap-buy the old motorcycle a friend of mine has offered to swap-buy for just a few hundred bucks, I can evade the insurance by hanging one of my other bikes’ tags on it. How many squealing enforcers could tell the difference between an ’83 Honda and an ’84 Honda?

It’s a chance I am willing to take. Feed ’em fish heads!

A huge blessing is that I was able to tell the got-damned home insurance mafia to chew coarse grains through loose teeth and cancel the policy – because I own my house. The bastards had arbitrarily jacked up my “coverage” to more than $1,500 annually. I’ve never filed a claim. I live on top of a mountain where there is no chance of flood damage, almost no chance of a tornado or hurricane; virtually no chance I will ever file a claim.

Yet they wanted $1,500 annually – sure to go up again at some point for no legitimate reason.

Feed ’em fish heads!

I cancelled the policy and the feeling was orgiastic. Better than most sex I’ve had. That was seven years ago. I have already saved nearly $11,000! That amounts to the cost of a brand-new 50 year roof, with top-of-the-line architectural shingles. Something of tangible value to me. Unlike “coverage.”

If the egregious, tyrannical property taxes on the house went away I could live comfortably on $1,000 a month, saving a couple hundred each month, probably.

But we can’t have financial independence – that is, liberty. Much too dangerous… to the powers that be. We’d have less need of them and their plans.

That’s the wormy core of this insurance-at-gunpoint business. To keep us toiling, in order to keep on paying. The burden of insurance and taxes is so heavy that most people must work, until they can no longer physically work. Which would be okay if that’s what they wanted to do – and were doing it for their own benefit, or to benefit their families.

Instead, they – we – are forced to work like oxen for the benefit of parasites with guns and the weight of the government behind them. And yet, oxen are powerful beasts when roused to anger.

Perhaps this rant will trigger something within a few.

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razzle
razzle

— “What you haven’t got is the right to force others to buy it – and thereby take away their free choice.”

FAILURE TO ACKNOWLEDGE REALITY!

People DO have the right to take away other people’s choice.

On earth… you only have the right if you defend it. Everything else is nothing more than whining and those who exercise their right to force/encourage you to be afraid to defend your right to defend yourself understand reality better.

It’s unpleasant. It’s nasty. It’s brutish. It’s reality.

We keep saying “You don’t have the right to do that” to people who keep doing exactly that the same way leftists say “You can’t say that” to people who keep saying that.

Anonymous
Anonymous

So might makes right?

razzle
razzle

You understood nothing I said, asked a stupid question, and will forever be a slave.

I’m your upvoter.

Anonymous
Anonymous

If so, it isn’t my responsibility to understand you.

It’s yours to be clearly understandable.

razzle
razzle

I can’t teach a stupid virus godly tricks.

I’m still your upvoter.

razzle
razzle

Let me make it as clear as possible.

Saying “You don’t have the right to do that!” while someone guts you proves you are fundamentally Wrong about Everything here on Earth.

Another anonymous
Another anonymous

The reality is that they have the *ability* to do it, not the right.

Boat Guy
Boat Guy

The car insurance is naturally a problem removing freedom of choice I agree . So if you are prepared for a multi million dollar settlement pay out for some accidental situation you are responsible for fine post a bond and drive otherwise stay of my side of the road ! I never used the public school system for our children but I am forced to pay out for that failing system to operate ! There are billions squeezed out of citizens yearly but remember when you show up at an emergency room needing treatment for a chainsaw injury or God forbid you need chemo therapy or an organ transplant don’t ask me to cover your results from you exercising your first right of refusal . I totally agree the health insurance mess created by the unholy alliance between business and government is wrong on numerous counts and the only true fix is a non payment health system totally covered by taxes and governed by Doctors for efficient care where services are given with one requirement you are a citizen or you are legally here as a guest of the American people ! We who pay for health insurance are purchasing the Cadillac plan we just are not getting what we pay for $

unit472
unit472

You are only required to have ‘liability insurance’ for a car unless you borrowed money to buy it then you must insure the vehicle to protect the lender. You CAN forego liability insurance in some states if you post a bond of sufficient size.
That is the real reason auto insurance is required- to protect other people from damage you cause! “Sorry” doesn’t cut it when someone’s automobile has been damaged or destroyed or they have enormous medical bills.

What is outrageous today is Obamacare. People are forced to buy policies that purport to be insurance only to find out they are on the hook for the first $6000 so the ‘insurance’ is useless for anything but a serious or chronic medical problem. Imagine auto insurance with the same deductible!

We know most Americans have nothing like $6,000 in their bank account and, as a result, will forego medical care until their medical problem becomes life threatening. The other issue with $6000 deductibles is medical billing. How does the insurance company KNOW when you have paid your annual co-pay when you are getting bills from a cornucopia of medical service providers? You have to do the accounting not them but remember you are sick, perhaps very sick, and determining which service from each provider is applicable to what ‘policy’ year is not easy to do even if you are in perfect health.

Anonymous
Anonymous

And we constantly hear proudly defending this, and bragging about how much better off we are now than we were before Obamacare.

KaD
KaD

And somehow the requirement for auto insurance is least followed by the people most likely to cause serious damages- repeat drunk drivers and illegals. I remember the days before it was required, most people had it anyways, at rates substantially less than today’s rates.

Freed debt slave
Freed debt slave

The government simply needs to get completely out of the business of business. Period. Let the chips fall where they may. I don’t necessarily agree with the car insurance rant, however on some level it does make an excellent point of precedence. Frankly, I just carry the minimum coverage required by law on my paid for car. The real crime is when sheeple have to have a new car, and they are required by the debt enslavers to carry full coverage on the vehicle. THAT is stupid, but also well within the choice of the individual to not CHOOSE to buy a new car. Pay cash for a used car, (private party to avoid the sales tax) then carry only the minimum required state coverage. The registration racket is far more of a protection racket (from the LEO) than the insurance scam.

Regarding the unholy alliance between government and business, I think the farm subsidies, bank subsidies (TBTF), and many other cases of government picking winners and losers is self explanatory, and simply should ALL be gutted. Insurance is a good hedge on the future (like a stock put) but being forced to spend your money on anything, including having your money debased by the fed is completely unacceptable and akin to robbery at gun point.

razzle
razzle

— “The government simply needs to get completely out of the business of business. Period.”

Make them. Until you make them, they won’t stop. But then you’ll be the government.

See the problem?

KaD
KaD

If I lived on top of a mountain my main worry would be wildfire. I’d want insurance. Just saying.

Dave
Dave

Own my house free and clear. Impossible to insure the house for the value I want it insured for. It’s either their way or no insurance.

Dutchman
Dutchman

“Impossible to insure the house for the value I want it insured for”

No it’s not. Just buy replacement value insurance.

Maggie
Maggie

I liked this so much that for the second time this year, I dragged Nick down and told him to read this. I’ll let you know what he thinks.

Dutchman
Dutchman

Here again, Eric is trying to make a libertarian argument – but it’s stupid.

You need liability insurance, for any damage / injury you may do to others while driving your car. Someone with a broken arm will probably rack up $20,000 in medical bills – and that’s not counting if they decide to sue you for pain and suffering.

If you’re a hick, live in the sticks, have no assets, drive a shit box car, then the minimum insurance is right for you. But if you have some net worth, drive on metro freeways – you need more than the minimum. For a nice home, you need replacement value insurance. Especially if you have items, like my wife, who has a Steinway Grand and a 19th century cello.

Also, if you are injured in an accident, your insurance will cover you. But with the minimum coverage – it doesn’t go a long way. Actually, I don’t care about you – but I don’t want us taxpayers to pick-up the costs.

Stucky

In 1970 I was driving home from the shore with my girlfriends brand new 1970 Mustang. We were about 4 blocks from her house when a car with four Mexicans (seriously) ran through a stop sign at 40-50 mph.

I had a minor knee injury, but my girlfriend’s head went through the windshield. The car was a total loss.

The Mexicans had no insurance. We. Got. Fucked. Badly.

So, while I would love to be a true Libertarian, and agree with EP … “Fuck Being Forced To Pay Insurance!!!” ……. well, I just can’t do it. I trust you understand why.

ASIG
ASIG

Slightly off topic but interesting, I always pay my vehicle registration at my auto insurance Co. AAA in order to avoid the long lines at the DMV. The last time, there was only one guy ahead of me; no one else in line, wow great. The guy ahead of me being waited on was a little middle aged Vietnamese man, just an ordinary looking guy. When that guy walked away I go up to the counter and just as I get there the girl working the counter turns to show someone else something on a piece of paper. I was about to get annoyed when she turns back to me and commented that the last guy had just paid the yearly license/registration for a Lamborghini. Then she told me the amount, $6,000.

That’s just the license fee he pays to the state, so how much is his insurance?

I’m not buying a Lamborghini.

bell1

Excellent piece.

I’ve said for years that insurance is a racquet, just like college/student loans. Who tells you that you need a degree in order to get a “good” job? Colleges. Who tells you that you need insurance? Insurance companies. They’re both institutions created to perpetuate themselves.

I love it when car insurance rates go up and the insurance company tells you (regardless that your driving record is impeccable and haven’t had so much as a speeding ticket in 20 years) that rates have gone up because the “high percentage of accidents in your area”. ????? So, penalize the people who are causing the accidents with higher premiums. Instead, it’s just like quasi-nationalized healthcare, Obamacare. They force people to buy a product they don’t need (insurance) and that they will rarely or never use/make a claim to, all while charging them exorbitant rates simply BECAUSE they’re healthy and/or good drivers. The purpose here is nothing more than a HUGE wealth transfer from the producer class to the taker class. High car insurance rates exist for the most part to fund the accidents illegal aliens, welfare recipients and others cause. Likewise, the massive Obamacare rates are going to pay for all those Medicaid plans, which make up more than 85% of enrollees. It’s socialized medicine, under a slightly different arrangement.

Now, healthy people are paying $500+ per month in premiums (that’s nowhere near the family rate) while never reaching their $3,000 deductible, all the while having the “luxury” of having to pay cash every time they need to go to the doctor themselves. Their insurance is essentially useless, and they’re paying for the “privilege” to pay out-of-pocket for doctor visits when they could do that all along with NO insurance coverage. It’s coverage that’s not really coverage.

Adding insult to injury, they MANDATE that health insurance be carried or you pay an extra 2%tax. Great. Now, you simply can’t exist in America as a free person. There’s now a fee to simply exist in the U.S.A. and if you fail to pay either $X,XXX in premiums or the tax penalty, you’ll hear from the IRS and eventually go to jail. What’s next? Debtor’s Prision?

I’ve never supported mandated health insurance. It’s a socialist wealth transfer, anti-American scheme. Besides, if you set aside your own self-determined healthcare premiums that work with your budget into another bank account that you paid to yourself, you’d have money to pay for the large things when needed. If you’ve worked steadily since your were 16, just try to add up all the health insurance deductions from your paycheck over 40 years. You’d have more than enough to pay for a serious event, and even if you remained healthy…you’d have that money to buy something else you needed. Insurance companies run on fear. What IF this or that happens to you? You need “coverage”. That’s how they get you, because for most people “this or that” never happens. Even with things like surgery, unlike car insurance, the bill comes directly to you. Only you are responsible. If you’re willing to take the risk of personal bankruptcy, then that’s your business. The hospital? They write much of those losses off.

overthecliff
overthecliff

That is what government does. Screws people to profit their friends. That is why it is important to have your friends control the government. Then they can rig the system so you can profit more than the system takes from you. It is not moral or ethical but it is what it is.

Don Levit

Many families who receive no subsidies are paying $20,000 in premiums and deductibles for essentially catastrophic coverage
That is like going to a casino to play the wheel of fortune
You plop down $20,000 on the 50 to 1 odds in hopes of winning $1 million
How many times would you play that game?

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