Many complain about taxes. About how we’re forced to hand over so much of our money to the government in taxes – including property taxes on our homes – that it’s very hard for most of us to ever accrue meaningful savings (capital) and for that reason are stuck like hamsters spinning in a wheel, working to earn money to pay taxes – until the day comes when we’re no longer able to spin the wheel.
That’s on purpose, of course.
Karl Marx explained why in his manifesto. Taxes are not designed to raise money. They are meant to prevent us from accumulating it. “Us” being working and middle class people; i.e., the bourgeoisie – the people Marx didn’t want to own capital, because then they would serve as a bulwark against communism, the economic system in which the state (that is the handful of communist operatives who control it) control all the capital.
Communism being in fact – as opposed to rhetoric – state capitalism.
Lenin’s “useful idiots” – who are today’s blue-haired, LBGTQ+TDS types – do not seem to notice that in the communist societies they admire, instead of the working and middle class owning homes and cars and so on, only communist leaders such as Stalin and Mao and their administrative cadres have use of such things. Of what is styled “state property”- which the useful idiots are too dim to see amounts to owning said property (the use of which Stalin, et al were not obliged to pay taxes as the condition of being allowed to use then, as is the case with the taxes on property and so on that the working and middle classes are obliged to pay in what are transitioning into communist societies).
But as bad as taxes are, certainly insurance is at least as bad – in terms of its impoverishing effect.
These amount to taxes that are paid voluntarily by the victim (though some forms of insurance such as car and health are now, like taxes, mandatory). The average person has been conditioned to think he is getting something in return for his money.
Just like taxes.
The person who buys homeowner’s insurance, for instance, believes he is “covered” in the event his home suffers major damage. If that ever happens. It probably won’t – absent stupidity, which includes buying a house near the ocean where it is known that hurricanes are a common occurrence. Or because the owner of the home decided to screw around with electrical wiring without knowing how to properly run wiring – in which case, the fire that erupts as a result probably won’t be “covered” anyhow.
And likely neither will anything else that may (and probably won’t) happen. Just as in the case of “health insurance” – which insures health like rubbing the golden buddha’s belly at the Chinese buffet brings good luck.
The insurance mafia loves to collect; it fights hard to avoid paying. But the point is to consider why the insurance mafia offers “coverage.” It does not offer it because it expects to pay. It offers it because it expects to collect – and almost always does.
A lot. Just like the taxes people are forced to pay as the price of being allowed to retain conditional possession of what they imagine to be their property.
Herewith a personal case-in-point.
I am forced to pay roughly $2,000 annually to the county government in order to be allowed to remain in the house I bought (and paid for) 20 years ago. That’s about $40,000 so far. That’s about the same – possibly more – than I would have spent to “cover” my house over the same period of time.
In italics because I didn’t pay it.
And so I still have the $40,000 I would have spent to buy nothing besides “coverage” I didn’t need. Just like the “health insurance” I didn’t need in my 20s. Instead of paying for “coverage” I was able to pay for a down payment on my first house instead. If you are in your 20s today, consider that.
Because I haven’t spent $40k on “coverage,” I have $40k I otherwise wouldn’t have. That means I have the money to spend on all-but-catastrophic damage to my house, which is unlikely ever to occur. Just as it was unlikely, when I was 22, that I would have a heart attack or get cancer or any other such thing that could not be handled out-of-pocket. 
The take-home point is I am $40k richer. More finely, I am $40k less poor than I would otherwise have been had I been scared into buying “coverage.”
I wasn’t – probably because I grew up not being afraid of everything, which seems to be how all-too-many people who’ve grown up since the Era of Safetyism arrived, roughly in the late 1980s – by which time I was out of college and already immunized against the neurotic dread of risk that seems to have infected so many people born since the late 1980s. This latter may be closely correlated with the same-era practice of safety-seating children – which was something Gen X children and prior children generally weren’t subjected to when they were children, excepting in a few cases of neurotic parents.
These latter were once the exception rather than the rule.
The correlation seems reasonable. Raise a whole generation of people to be afraid – of everything – and you have a ready-made demographic that cannot imagine living without “coverage” for everything. Viz, the financial absurdity of someone in their young 20s wasting several hundred dollars each month on “health insurance” they need like a person who can swim needs to wear a life vest . . . while walking on the beach.
Is it any wonder why people in their young 20s often can’t afford rent? Let alone a mortgage?
“Coverage” has been extremely effective at vaporizing wealth by preventing its accumulation – which serves the same end-goal as taxes.
The only meaningful difference is that all-too-many-people don’t seem to resent what they’ve spent (and been forced to spend) for all this “coverage.”
. . .
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It’s a shame that insurance like taxes weren’t eligible for an instant credit like a bad purchase off of Temu. False advertisement, not wanted, doesn’t work? Instant credit and at least on the small purchases I made I got to keep them (broken, not working).
Sorry for the ad but that does show the difference between forced purchase vs sorta open market. Short of suing good luck getting much of what was promised to you. I can afford to self insure my older home but even then how do you deal with a trespasser that sues when they trip over the kid’s bike? Based on what I’ve read it could be pricey.
With health insurance you can get catastrophic coverage for the big things, for the rest live a healthy life and stay in shape is a good idea so as not need a high end policy.
But in the end you calculate what you can afford to lose and plan accordingly. Sounds like the thing I heard on an ad called adulting.
Probably in 1988, around that time, I bought a health insurance policy from a health insurer. The state insurance commissioner ordered the health insurance company to return about 40 percent of the cost, overpaid for the coverage.
I received a check from the insurance company and that was that.
I had no idea what it was the insurance company did, they must have been investigated after claim issues were brought to the attention of those who need to find out, one question.
Soon afterwards, the insurance commissioner was offered a job at a big time insurance corporation.
Somebody didn’t want the insurance commissioner doing his job, me thinks. You don’t tell insurance companies what to do.
Drives those nuts crazy.
It’s always a Catch 22.
In the 1990’s the home insurance was over 1500 a year, one claim in 10 years of coverage. Half was paid, the other half, the insurance company to me to take a hike, the kikes that they are.
I found a new home insurer, only so much tolerance for that behavior.
You get stiffed for a 15,000 dollar investment. The dollar back then bought a whole lot more than today’s dollar.
Folks are standing at street corners with homeless signs in their hands. One old person was among them. Peace officers do their job and find help for those unfortunate souls.
… the insurance company told me to take a hike…
Need an l and d to make the verb.
It’s not Torch Light Orchestra, it’s Electric Light Orchestra.
Big difference.
Insurance is a bet.
On average, dollar-wise, you lose, in the sense that you will pay significantly more in premiums than you will most likely receive in payouts. When you think about it, it pretty much has to be that way.
It may make sense in some situations, mainly involving sudden catastrophic losses. You pay a cost that you can afford, in case something happens requiring a payout you cannot afford, even knowing that you could—on average—put the money in a bank account and come out ahead. This gets into the weeds with things like time-value of money etc. But it mainly involves large assets you can only spring for once, such as a house perhaps, and possibly certain business equipment. Where maybe it would take you so long to be able to replace it, that your business would suffer and never be able to recover. Perhaps catastrophic medical coverage also would make sense.
Most of what we buy insurance for quite frankly does not make a whole lot of sense. I’m sorry, it just doesn’t. Most of it is just throwing money away.
100% Off Topic: What the eff happened to John Deere?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPzdcjnzZ24
Here is a clue — John Deere started sucking up to trannies:
‘[John Deere’s] training video goes on to say that “trans women are women, and they’ve never not been a woman” so it’s “not accurate” to say that they used to be a man.’
https://x.com/robbystarbuck/status/1811755897737334992
Hi Jim,
In re ““trans women are women, and they’ve never not been a woman” so it’s “not accurate” to say that they used to be a man.”
This is, of course, absurd.Everyone knows it, too. We’re just supposed to pretend we don’t – which is insane.
Toothless Man agrees:
https://tinyurl.com/y8w9323c
‘As bad as taxes are, certainly insurance is at least as bad – in terms of its impoverishing effect.’ — eric
Preach it, brother!
Central planners at the Federal [sic] Reserve reportedly pay special attention to a subset of the Consumer Price Index called Supercore CPI. It strips out housing, energy and goods prices to focus on ‘stickier’ services inflation.
In this morning’s report, auto insurance contributed an annualized 1.98% to the 4.65% YoY rise in Supercore CPI. Chart:
https://tinyurl.com/326nwnv6
Not that the central planners will DO anything about it — other than hold interest rates higher than they otherwise would be, because Supercore CPI remains elevated. Thus the serfs are doubly punished, first in their ‘coverage’ cost and then in their interest rate-driven car payment. Suffering is the path to transcendence, comrades.
1000 insured at 1000 dollars per month for your health is one million dollars.
One million insured, one billion dollars per month.
100 million insured times 1000 is going to be 100 billion dollars.
In one year, 100,000,000 insured have to fork over 1.2 trillion dollars. Please don’t file a claim, it costs money.
They’re in it for the money.
I had a house in Las Vegas which had no insurance because the Insurance Stassi wanted my Social Security Number and I give that to no one but the IRS. When I left Vegas, about 1 month later, due to the shitty Vegas Building Inspection System, one of the substandard water pipes broke and flooded the house. There was a Class Action Lawsuit against the builder going on at the time so I’m sure the insurance company didn’t pay.
We’ve been in our same house for 50 years now, paying homeowners insurance premiums that entire time. Had one claim in all that time back in 2015 for water damage during that year of never ending snowstorms, was about $20k and the company paid it but then tried to drop us when the policy was up for renewal. I probably paid more than $50k in premiums up to that point but you pay the mafia, the mafia never pays you – great business model. Our agent got us a new policy and the scam continues. I considered dropping it completely for the reasons Eric listed, but with all the lawyer ads on the teevee I’m worried about some scam artist staging an “accident” on my property and end up losing the house. BTW in such a scenario I would burn it to the ground first.
Insurance and taxes are founded on very similar lies. That you can’t get along without government, or insurance. Both are predators. Any benefit you may gain from either is purely coincidental. An “accident” so to speak.
I’m currently in the middle of a 4-way circle jerk between 2 doctors, the insurance cabal, and my local pharmacy. For going on 2-weeks now some bullshit bureaucratic thing has kept me from getting needed medication. I finally said fuck it yesterday and paid out of pocket. $90 for one. Nearly $1,000 for another. $180 for a third if it ever comes in.
I’m thankful to be able to have resources to do so. But the ‘health insurance’ I’ve paid on for forty-some years is doing everything they can to see me to my grave. So they can go on and mulct young people, I suppose.
Terrible, Mike –
I’ve come to the cold, hard realization that it’s on me to take care of myself. Thus I do everything I can to take care of myself – and part of that is to avoid “insurance.” It may have been a good thing once. It no longer is. Just another chomp out of our backsides.
It would be interesting to know what % of premiums are spent on pharmaceuticals vs other types of care. I don’t trust search engines or chat bots for such answers.
‘$90 for one. Nearly $1,000 for another. $180 for a third if it ever comes in.’ — Mike
Special prices just for Americans! Often the same meds are available at a third the price overseas.
Over the past few years I’ve placed at least half a dozen orders with buy hyphen pharma dot md … received all of them … mostly manufactured in Mumbai.
Not trying to tout any particular source; many others exist. But I loathe Big Pharma and love to see them deprived of revenue. Death to Pfizer!
Only insurance worth buying is a Dash Cam. So, when the Armed Government Worker comes a calling and wants to issue you some payin paper you can say; Yes officer, it will be your word in front of the judge against my dash cam.
Never willingly offer any information to the PoPo at a traffic stop.
Everything you say can and will be used against you in court. Rest assured of that.
They literally tell you it, and people talk anyways. It is in the Miranda statement. “Can AND WILL be used AGAINST you.”
Not for you, not to help you, not to explain the story. Used AGAINST you, and they talk anyways. Baffling stupidity…
It starts with the various first trick question out of their mouth- “Do you know why I pulled you over?” If you answer in the affirmative in any way shape or form that is an admission of guilt.
The days of “Officer Friendly” are LONG gone, I think only Boomers (and maybe Xers) at this point have a vague memory of it. It is all ‘hut hut hut’ super aggressive d-bags now trained to ‘make it home safely’ even if that means leaving you a leaking body because you moved in a way they didn’t like.
The hut hut hut dirtbags were first spotted during the days of the 55 mph speed limit. An increasingly militarized, intolerat group of people with the social profile of a wife beater gravitated towards police work during the mid 70’s to the mid 80’s. At first, they were a small part of the overall force. Their numbers went exponentially in the 80’s to where they are today.
Yep! Last month I was working for the county. So there went one paycheck to property taxes and the next paycheck went to cover auto/home owners “protection”. I will have to repeat the scam again come December! But they were nice enough to give me the other 10 months to be able to eat.
Not to mention it becomes an inflationary device. Every year your insurance company looks at the payouts and makes adjustments as needed. If payouts go up, so do premiums. Doesn’t matter why, just that they are paying out more than they did last year. See it all the time in health care, where firms negotiate fees for service. The provider comes in with a highly inflated number, the insurance company “negotiates” a lower price and they come to an agreement -one that’s higher than the last year’s fee. Notice that the actual patient and insured have no say in the matter. “The professionals are working for you, dear. Just don’t you worry your little head about that mean old accounting department.”
I would imagine there’s a fair bit of crossover between the two sides of the table too. Much like how regulators are choice picks for employment by the regulated firms.
>See it all the time in health care, where firms negotiate fees for service.
Except sometimes they don’t. When I was in a minor traffic accident in 2014, my insurance company rolled over and paid the demand, up to policy limits, which were reached in less than 24 hours. After that, it is all on me.
The medical industrial complex is expert at sucking people dry.
Regarding health insurance, I have it for one reason only – protection against a catastrophic health condition that can bankrupt me because I am hospitalized or need to undergo expensive treatments. The insurance is costly and has very high deductibles. It is supposed to cover certain procedures/exams that are routine (e.g. colonoscopies) but the insurance company finds ways around paying for them (e.g. it is diagnostic not routine because XYZ). Medical practices that accept the insurance spend all their time figuring out how to bill the insurance company and order tests etc. Many physicians spend most of their time with their head buried in the computer asking questions like “have you been jabbed” rather than listening to your symptoms and actually touching your body to examine you.
If I had no assets to protect, then the cost of a severe illness or hospitalization wouldn’t matter because I couldn’t pay (if I survive) and obviously if death resulted it also wouldn’t matter. This is why illegals and those without insurance go to the ER where they must be seen, and if necessary hospitalized.
People say we don’t have socialized medicine. As of 2022, 92 million people were on Medicaid (28% of the population). Then there is Medicare, which covers those over 65, most of whom will collect far more in benefits than were paid for. As of 2021, 63 million people (approx 20% of the population) were on Medicare. So socialized medicine accounts for nearly 50% of the population. With Obamacare, military retiree Tricare, VA beneficiaries, Native American care, and federal and state and local government provided health care to its employees, well over 50% of the population has some sort of government subsidized health insurance policy.
Native American care….
The indigenous….In some countries they get free medical, dental, university education, exemption from prosecution…it is racist…etc., etc.,
Nobody in N. America is indigenous…they are all migrants…..even the bears….they all migrated after the ice age…
and…there is no definition of indigenous…so many take advantage of the hand outs…..the free stuff….
In some countries the indigenous are getting the land back…including all the billions of $$$ in infrastructure….what a deal….
take a look at UNDRIP….
I must confess I’m one of those over 50% as I have VA health care coverage. And what coverage it is…in 2019 I was diagnosed with bladder cancer and had successful surgery removing it. Cost to me? $50 copay. Last year I needed two separate angioplastys to clear two heart artery blockages along with implantation of three stents. $50 each surgery + $15 for each prescription after. Of course to get this wonderful coverage I had to put my life on the line in a foreign war during Operation Desert Storm, which, because of toxic exposure to nearby oil well fires, is possibly what caused those problems in the first place.
Sorry to hear of your health difficulties. And the US should certainly provide excellent medical care to the veterans that it has harmed in our wars, free of charge.
Howard,
Veteran health care should be provided by General Dynamics, Haliburton, Raytheon……etc.
“The only meaningful difference is that all-too-many-people don’t seem to resent what they’ve spent (and been forced to spend) for all this “coverage.”
Ignorance is truly bliss. In regards to insurance, most people have no clue how much they are spending a year on it. Since home insurance is bundled into the mortgage along with the taxes, all most people see is the monthly mortgage payment. It matters not to them what percentage is insurance and what percentage is taxes.
In regards to health insurance, most people have jobs providing that scam “benefit” which allows businesses to write off such “benefit” and pretend they are offering something of value to their employees instead of offering them an increased salary. Most people never even see how much of their paycheck is going to the health benefit scam. As long as the paychecks keep coming is all that matters.
In regards to car insurance, again most people are on monthly payment plans along with their other monthly bills such as netflix subscriptions. What it adds up to yearly is no concern to them as long as they can pay that month.
If society didn’t allow taxes and insurance to be hidden from the consumer in monthly payments bundled with other payments (or subtracted from salaries), the consumer wouldn’t be so ignorant of those extortion costs. If consumers had to pay yearly bills in cash for taxes and insurance, such ignorance would go poof.
Autopay is a mixed blessing. On one hand, if you have a fairly large balance in your checking account, it can prevent late fees and forgotten bills. But it also hides fee increases, and disconnects one from the process of going through the monthly bills. Oh sure, you get that email telling you the bill will be collected on day X, but it doesn’t register as well as actually setting the payment.
And there are all the little nuisance autopays too. Subscriptions come to mind (one that I don’t mind is my monthly payment to Eric Peters Autos), but also the “gotcha” software licenses and other nickel and dimes that add up. I periodically go though my phone and see what apps are still installed that I haven’t used in a while, and get them deleted -also helps a little with keeping your digital footprints light. In fact should probably set a quarterly reminder to do that too.
For your software licences, go to alternativeto.net and see what open source equivalents exist for the software you are paying for. Try them out, and switch to the ones you like, and keep looking for the ones you don’t.