It's ok to be angry about capitalism

[Baffle]

driven kilometers (lower better, don't ask me how they check this).

In the UK car mileage is registered when you get your MOT (annual, legally required safety check), so the insurance company will fight your claim if your figures look iffy. But it's only supposed to be estimated anyway.

I don't generally object to car insurance, but I can't say I enjoy paying it, and I do think younger people get horrendously screwed on it (I agree they have riskier driving profiles but I'm not convinced they're that much riskier).

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Making the insurance a public service would sooner or later lead to it being partially tax funded with the general population on the hook.

Ahh, y'all are Europeans. That explains a lot.

Anyway, the auto insurance industry makes plenty of profit, I don't get the fear that the government charging for legally required liability insurance is gonna lose a substantial amount of money or spill over to people who don't drive

 

[Silvanus]

Ahh, y'all are Europeans. That explains a lot.

Anyway, the auto insurance industry makes plenty of profit, I don't get the fear that the government charging for legally required liability insurance is gonna lose a substantial amount of money or spill over to people who don't drive

I can see that there would probably be some cost to the general public in the short term, in the cost of creating the system and operating it before there was substantial income from it.

But in the longer term it could financially benefit the general public. As you say, the insurance industry makes a lot of money. In private hands, that income just becomes shareholder profit. In public hands, it can be reinvested and lessen the burden on public tax.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

I can see that there would probably be some cost to the general public in the short term, in the cost of creating the system and operating it before there was substantial income from it.

But in the longer term it could financially benefit the general public. As you say, the insurance industry makes a lot of money. In private hands, that income just becomes shareholder profit. In public hands, it can be reinvested and lessen the burden on public tax.

As long as those in charge follow through with that. There would have to be stringent watch dogging and fund earmarking by the public, kinda like shareholders.

 

[Silvanus]

As long as those in charge follow through with that. There would have to be stringent watch dogging and fund earmarking by the public, kinda like shareholders.

This would all come under anti-corruption, really. Which yes, would need to be stringent and powerful in any state-run industry.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

The way Australia does it varies from state to state a little but registration rolls compulsory third party into the cost. So technically driving an uninsured car here is the same as an unregistered one. I'm pretty confident that is the only insurance you're legally required to have. Comprehensive, Third Party Fire and Theft, and Third Party Property are recommended but as far as I know you can ride without them if you're so inclined.

Yep, you can hoot about with only 3rd Party Compulsory... which is... yeah... pretty much worthless unless you're facing down someone else's medical costs resulting from a RTA that's your fault. Everything else will be coming out of your pocket.

 

[Gordon_4]

Yep, you can hoot about with only 3rd Party Compulsory... which is... yeah... pretty much worthless unless you're facing down someone else's medical costs resulting from a RTA that's your fault. Everything else will be coming out of your pocket.

Oh I never said it was a good idea, just that you’re allowed to.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

I don't generally object to car insurance, but I can't say I enjoy paying it, and I do think younger people get horrendously screwed on it (I agree they have riskier driving profiles but I'm not convinced they're that much riskier).

Should be based on the type of car. For example, Ford Ranger drivers shouldn't get covered for accidents involving them tailgating and anything involving bicycles.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Oh I never said it was a good idea, just that you’re allowed to.

Been there, done that... and $2700 poorer for the experience.

What I learned from that is Compulsory 3rd Party is mostly worthless and don't bother trying to redo a shit attempt at parking in a supermarket carpark because the world is full of impatient twunts.

 

[Baffle]

Should be based on the type of car. For example, Ford Ranger drivers shouldn't get covered for accidents involving them tailgating and anything involving bicycles.

"Sorry sir, Range Rovers are only covered for accidents that occur in the fields where they should be frolicking."

On 3rd party insurance: that's pretty much all I could afford when I was a kid, otherwise I'd be paying more annually than my car was actually worth. My first car was a £900 Ford Escort (IV); the insurance fully comp would've been something like £1500; it was still north of £600 3rd party (which is more than I pay now, ~25 years later, on my much better and bigger car).

 

[Phoenixmgs]

A) My complaint was never that I was forced to have insurance. My complaint was that said insurance had to come from a third party private corporation

B)Montana does, in fact, force you to have insurance to register a car.
Wild. Wish car insurance worked like that, which was the point of the statement
You guess that a *lot* of racist things aren't actually racist based on nothing whatsoever

I wasn't replying to you when I said forcing to have people insurance was a good thing.

People saying everything is racist has become "the boy the cried wolf" because when you actually look into that stuff, it usually ends up not being racist. If you say something, prove your claim. Same thing with the gender pay gap, it's not actually a thing.

 

[Silvanus]

People saying everything is racist has become "the boy the cried wolf" because when you actually look into that stuff, it usually ends up not being racist. If you say something, prove your claim. Same thing with the gender pay gap, it's not actually a thing.

Of course, you're the one most frequently insisting something is racist (affirmative action). So prove your claim.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

I wasn't replying to you when I said forcing to have people insurance was a good thing.

People saying everything is racist has become "the boy the cried wolf" because when you actually look into that stuff, it usually ends up not being racist. If you say something, prove your claim. Same thing with the gender pay gap, it's not actually a thing.

Lotta people say different. Not that it matters, you already disagree with them so they're wrong. Nothing's racist as long as you can find one slightly official looking YouTuber saying so

 

[Gergar12]

Since we are all ranting about the free market. I have a rant of mine too. There is an energy company called ABC Natural Gas Company that serves ABC City (I have told you guys where I lived/which county, so google it if you really want to know). Since I am not unhinged(today at least), I won't be stating their name. Anyway, they came to us and told me that ABC Natural Gas company wants to be our(my city) natural gas company vs DEF Natural Gas company which is the default. Since I don't know about energy prices that well in the micro sense/the state/county/city/non-world politics. I just googled the company. Their Google reviews are good, they are above 4 stars. Great. I look at Reddit, and one Reddit post stating they are great, and utility aggregations with cities are great because they save you money generally ***************.

So then I am looking at my energy bill this month, and I see we use VERY LITTLE NATURAL GAS. And yet my bill is give or take around 70 dollars. And I also see two fees one with regards to delivery charges, okay I guess that makes sense, and one with gas supply charges. Like 2.60 is how much I use.

Fucking hell if I am using 2.60 dollars of energy, why is the rest taxes, and fees. But as soon as I did that, I realized something. The Republicans in the state chamber, etc. Deregulated energy, and even at one point gave money towards first energy for nuclear and coal(yes I shit you not it's Ohio).

Now I am actually willing to pay money for nuclear even if it's a little extra since that's what enables more people to study it, work in it, help our Navy, help research towards better fission, maybe molten salt will happen, and so forth.

Why are we still pumping money into fucking coal? So of course the FBI kicked out Larry Householder as the state speaker, and a bunch of other people, and our republican governor I am sure has nothing to do with it. (And yes his name is Dewine, and at a noncritical point I voted for him because I like Intel coming here with their semi-conductors)

Now I google their website again, little information on prices is shown, and their Google reviews seem very generic. I think they are either price discriminating(Larger houses pay more, lower usage people pay a fixed amount), or just cutting up corrupt deals with the city I don't know 100% because I never learned about energy economics, I learned about labor, and industrial economics(Close but not it).

Then the Reddit post I mentioned stated that not all aggregations are good, in nearby Dublin Ohio they negotiated rates at the PEAK of energy prices, and guess who ended up footing the bill for that?

Now there is no free lunch, my cost savings are someone else's salary lost. But that is why we need a bigger aggregation plan at the state level or if due to weather that is bad because Americans don't want to pay for other Americans' gas bills in a bad area(some I guess), county by county.

No, let's let a million companies(Okay I am being a little hyperbolic here), set prices, have different pricing standards, and little regulation, and if some of them screwed over the citizenry that's fine they should have googled everything they buy(I shit you not), and if there is no google, well at least it's a small bus that likely has higher prices and small businesses generation even for fucking natural gas is always great.

This is part of the problem with one of a few things I have with America. One is how am I supposed to google everything I spend money on? Maybe I could run a script with GPT-4 on my bank account, and I guess that will work(until it doesn't due to again due to asymmetrical information and GPT-3.5 or 4 picking up that one Reddit post)

And yes I could just get a better job where my stress will increase, and I could then afford to consume more, and buy more shit given my degree I could do that. But what about the low-consumers? Nah, fuck them.

By the way, I still don't know, because one website has one set of information another has another, Government websites don't have good UI, and the state journalists here are either right-wing capitalists, or have been let go, or even are still here, and have to juggle statehouse reporting. And no "citizen journalists that are untrained, biased, paired off, and or on TikTok don't count".

So when Republicans tell you to agree to less regulation or more choices, they basically want you in your busy life even with children to do more work to save money for retirement or a kid's college fund. You can know why they are full of it.

But the way I don't agree that natural gas companies should be our slaves, I despise governments like in Argentina where 1/3 of the population is employed by the government(More on that later), but we aren't going to even get to that point where we can come to a fair price without distortions, lobbying, and trying to trick one another because everyone has to negotiate the price of everything, and some/most/how ever many people will fail.

 

[Baffle]

I am using 2.60 dollars of energy

I've used almost that much before I get out of bed in the morning!

 

[Gergar12]

I've used almost that much before I get out of bed in the morning!

I never turn the heat over 72 degrees. It’s wasteful.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

tl:dr Gal has terminal cancer. Docs fight cancer back with chemo so it's just in her lungs. Radical procedure proposed: get rid of the lungs, get rid of the cancer. Double lung transplant approved and donor found. *Minutes* before surgery, Cigna insurance calls and cancels the surgery, overriding the doctors

Good news: after enough public outcry:

 

[Baffle]

I never turn the heat over 72 degrees. It’s wasteful.

That's quite warm tbf, we're set to 17.5C and a jumper.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Why are we still pumping money into fucking coal?

Subsidise the mining companies. Sometimes mining towns, usually companies.

Another thing to be annoyed at, there's no money for R&D for making coal power more efficient. Because we should stop using coal for power, which is fair enough...but then that doesn't happen, we still use coal for power, and it would be better if the research was done to make it cheaper, more efficient and less polluting, but that's not happening.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]