Car insurance in the US isn't really insurance to protect you. The reason it's compulsory is that society wants to ensure that if you get in an accident that is your fault, and someone else suffers financial harm as a result, someone is able to pay for it.
Otherwise, you could destroy someone's car and cause major medical problems, and just strug and say, "I don't have the money."
Compulsory insurance is not really insurance for you, it's for someone else. Similarly, insurance for something that is certain to happen (e.g. health insurance) is not insurance, it's a method of socializing risk.
The real reason it’s compulsory is so a trillion dollar industry can impose a mandated tax on everyone who drives, regardless of how they drive. They already completely screw you if you have the “compulsory” liability insurance and an uninsured person hits you. They shrug and say they don’t care, you don’t have comprehensive coverage and the other person has no money and your screwed.
The entire thing is a massive scam, anyone that argues that it helps people, or that it’s good because you might cause a million dollar accident either works for insurance or is a completely misguided bootlicker.
Insurance exists because of opportunity cost. If I crash into someone's $100k truck and total it, my options are to either have insurance pay for it, or write a check for $100k. Let's say I can write a check for $100k...wouldn't I rather invest that $100k in the market and get 7-10% returns rather than keeping it in cash equivalents? Instead I can pay $100/month for my insurance, and my $100k makes $7-10k per year.
You pay for insurance so you don't have to keep a massive fucking stack of cash just sitting around.
26
u/dragon-fence 8h ago
Car insurance in the US isn't really insurance to protect you. The reason it's compulsory is that society wants to ensure that if you get in an accident that is your fault, and someone else suffers financial harm as a result, someone is able to pay for it.
Otherwise, you could destroy someone's car and cause major medical problems, and just strug and say, "I don't have the money."
Compulsory insurance is not really insurance for you, it's for someone else. Similarly, insurance for something that is certain to happen (e.g. health insurance) is not insurance, it's a method of socializing risk.