swiley @swiley@social.cleverlibre.org

@icedquinn The insurance banks are required to have is a good example of it working that way for other things.

@icedquinn The large scale pattern that emerges from that combined with the way western law handles liability is sufficiently unpleasant to justify the insurance requirement.

@icedquinn The mandatory part of car insurance covers liabilities created by you in an accident that includes things like hitting people's mailboxes etc.

@icedquinn You don't have to do this in fact (I don't, since I own my car outright and it's a slowly disintegrating piece of junk that's not worth insuring.)

@icedquinn The health ensurance makes the problem go away for you but after that the other person probably owes your health insurance provider.
I think the liability here comes from older common law with the idea that when you cause a problem you're on the hook for righting it.
Also: things other than your health often get damaged in accidents: health insurance doesn't cover the car, and health insurance doesn't cover the cargo.

@icedquinn Yes, that is a good point. If the road infrastructure were maintained by a private entity they would almost certainly have a similar contract for similar reasons though.

@icedquinn I could misunderstand but you have to buy renters insurance when you rent an apartment in case you burn down your neighbors units.
You also have to have boat insurance for boats of a certain size. Banks have to have insurance against insolvency. etc.
The problem is that many people have a very hard time understanding risk and when enough people make the same mistake it exposes everyone to problems. Also if you buy anything on a loan that thing usually becomes the collateral so it makes sense for banks to require insurance on what is potentially their asset.
Cars in particular are extremely dangerous and driving one is very likely to result in an accident. (IMO the fundamental problem is that *everyone* has to drive to get literally anywhere in the US.) Car accidents almost always create more liability than many people can afford and so the end result of most of them would be "oh too bad someone else hit you."

@icedquinn Don't you think it makes sense to buy insurance to cover potential liabilities?
That's a pretty normal accounting idea.