Mafia Profiling

Guest Post by Eric Peters

Have you noticed that what you’re forced to pay in car insurance premiums – an outrage in itself – also bears almost no relation to what you’ve actually done as a driver?

More precisely, to what you haven’t done as a driver.

No claims filed against you. No “accidents.” You pay (and pay). They collect.

Curiously, the principle is never applied in reverse. The policyholder – who is literally held up at gunpoint, forced by the government to pay and if he fails to pay, will be accosted by men with guns, not because of any harm he has caused but because he hasn’t paid – never receives a refund for not having cost the insurance company anything.

Meanwhile, all it takes is a “speeding” ticket or two to negate decades of claim-free driving. They collect more – even though you still haven’t cost them anything.

What a racket. Literally.

The ticket is punishment for ignoring a rule. But it is taken as equivalent to a claim – even though no damage has been done to anyone. It serves as the pretext for rate “adjustments” which could never be justified otherwise, given the absence of claims filed.

And not even that.

You can have an accident and ticket-free driving record extending back decades and still be forced to pay rates out of all proportion to the risk you present.

Italicized to emphasize the point.

You – an individual – are dunned based on statistics about demographics. Sex, age and marital status, for instance. Lumped into a collective with others who share these and other general characteristics. The insurance mafia then imputes risk based on what others in this collective have done – and mulcts accordingly.

Somehow, this is legal.

Somehow, this does not trigger ululations of outrage in the manner that walking across the street to avoid having to walk past a young black male does.

Why not?

Both are forms of profiling. The assigning of risk values based on general characteristics.

If it is insulting – and unfair – to avoid this particular black guy because of some generalized angst about black guys as a class, then why is it ok for the mafia to express a similar fear of young guys (black and white) via generally higher premiums for all of them?

The third rail glows white hot!

It’s a nice racket. The government forces us to buy insurance from racketeering cartels who base what they charge us on profiling that would incite a civil rights “inquiry” in almost any other context.

And of course, we can’t say no.

That being the chief reason why insurance costs as much as it does for the should-be-obvious reason that whatever you’re forced to buy is always going to cost you more than it otherwise would, even if you said yes (freely) to it.

Mandatory insurance is literally an offer you can’t refuse.

Mafia apologists will claim that no one is forced to buy insurance; people are only required to buy it if they have a motor vehicle.

This is like saying no one is forced to pay sales tax on pants since no one has to buy pants. And it doesn’t address the no-harm-caused (but forced to pay regardless) issue or the effect on cost of compulsion.

Compulsion is at odds with the basic concept of insurance since it serves to mute the risk signal that is the the heartbeat of legitimate insurance.

If everyone is compelled to be “covered” then there is less reason to be careful – to avoid taking risks that could incur losses.

Why worry about it? I’m covered!

People forced to buy insurance are more likely to use it, too.

Instead of paying out of pocket to replace a cracked windshield or minor body damage they file a claim. Understandably – as it’s the only way to get a return on their “investment.” But this results in costs going up for everyone (just as mandated health insurance has gone up in cost for everyone) because everyone is using it for everything.

Insurance – in concept – is meant to be used only for some things. The big things. That is how risk is spread – and costs kept low. But mandated insurance upends this. Costs go up because there is no incentive to keep them low. We’re forced to pay for coverage – and this gives us ab incentive to use that coverage.

Many of us have to resort to using the coverage, too – precisely because we’re forced to pay to be covered. And pay more. We have no cash left to “cover” small things out of pocket.

It’s all been Hoovered away by the mafia!

Most of us would be able to afford to pay out of pocket for little things if it weren’t for the fact that we’re forced to be “covered” for everything.

Just the same as most of us would be able to pay for small doctor bills if we weren’t forced to pay for “coverage” – which always costs more than the little things.

The final outrage?

Mandatory insurance doesn’t force people to buy coverage. Just responsible people. The people, in other words, who pose the least risk – and who are most likely to take responsibility for harms they actually do cause. Who would freely buy reasonably priced insurance to cover the big things – which would be reasonably priced if they were free to say no to unreasonably priced insurance.

Irresponsible people, of course, remain perfectly free to skip mandated insurance – and impose harms they aren’t held responsible for – because they can’t be held responsible for them under the system as it is and they are well aware of this.

What does the system do to the illegal alien who drives without mandated insurance and wrecks your car?

If you answered – absolutely nothing – you get a star.

He has no money (that can be snatched, at any rate) and no on-the-books wages that can be garnished. The government doesn’t want him in jail because that costs money and the object of government is to take it. Even if he does go to jail, what benefit is that to you?

Your car is still wrecked – and guess who’s gonna pay to get it fixed?

You know the answer to that one, too.

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