37 Insurance against what?

I had ideas for the 'ol gripe session today, but after a few half-crying phone calls from the wife, I decided to start with the grand old institution of insurance. As many of you know, we have a 17 yr old boy that thinks A-money grows on trees, 2-we should be able to produce said money any time he requires it and E- No one else exists on the face of the planet except for him and his current girl friend.

As of this posting he is still alive and walking around somewhere on the next hill over at good 'ol high school. When he gets home, well, that's another story. Being a boy, he is naturally attracted to women, cars, big t.v.'s and various other shiny things. He has taken it upon his self from time to time to make sure we know that our vehicles were "old people" vehicles. I have let him, on occasion make slight modifications to our transportation to humor him and yesterday was one of those times. He bought a set of 20" rims and tires from a co-worker and just couldnt wait to see them on a vehicle. To put them on his truck he would need wheel adapters and mine is verboten. He proceeded to put them on his mother's explorer. With lug nuts from my old 79 because the factory lug nuts are made different. No problem. I can handle it and the rims did look pretty good on the old family truckster. I went to bed a bit early and when I got home this morning, Roz pointed to a lone rim in the livingroom and said he had a bit of trouble last night. He had to take it for a ride and show it off(to who I dont know) and across town, a rear wheel fell off. He had a buddy go get one of the old tires and some more lug nuts and he told his mother that all was well, he just had to get better lug nuts today after school. No problem. He and his brother left for school today and as I sat down to post, Roz called and said that the bumper was twisted up and the rear quarter panel was twisted up .

This all brings me to the insurance. The kid will probably get buried in the yard tonight, so he is irrelevant right now. I cant turn the accident in on the insurance for fear of cancellation. Oh, the policy is paid up and we havent had an at-fault accident for years. The fear stems from an incident about 15 years ago: A woman hit my vehicle, totalling it. I was in my lane, she was drunk and weaving back and forth across lanes. When I informed my insurance company(at the time) they waited about, oh, 1 week and cancelled me, citing me as a risk. What had I done? I didnt choose to drink and drive. No problem. I found other insurance and moved on with my life. So now I have a teenager that has wrecked my wife's transportation and she is now driving mine until I figure out what to do. If I turn this in, my gut tells me that we wont have insurance much longer or the premium will be so high, I could probably pay a new car payment with it.

I will probably do my best to hammer it out and replace the bumper with a junkyard special. The truck is paid for and we learned a long time ago that a paid for one that you have to work on now and then is much cheaper than a car payment for 5 years plus full coverage insurance that is absolutely ridiculous. So why do I have insurance? His liability insurance is more than mine and Roz's. He drives like every other teenage boy: flat out and stop. I dont care what they do when you're with them or when they are pulling away from your house. They all think they are Dale Jr. when they think they're out of sight. I did it and chances are you or your spouse did it. The insurance companies arent stupid. They are extortionists just like the medical, dental and drug industries. Oh yeah--and gas, electric, phone, tv...... anyway...They know how kids drive, after all they are new drivers. They require driver's ed and an arm and a leg to insure a teenage boy. Girls are slightly less. Big whoop.

So, if I get caught without insurance I will be fined, imprisoned, tasered, shot, pistol whipped and beaten with a rubber hose. Well, since I am a bit partial to pain, I can take it. I'm going to cancel my insurance and politely tell them to kiss my, well , something. I am going to sell our gas guzzling, global warming inducing, costly to maintain, Canadian-built, American vehicles and buy a couple horses. I hate horses, but if they displease me, I can at least shoot them and eat them. There would be some satisfaction in that. I also would not have to insure them at exorbitant rates.

Your homeowners is probably a good idea and life insurance is always a good thing, but what about the auto mess? Vehicles have risen in price by leaps and bounds over the last 10 or 15 years. The year we got married, we looked at a fully loaded Mustang and (GASP) it was 12,000 dollars. A new 4X4 pickup with all the amenities was about $10,000. Go look at a loaded pickup now: depending on brand(assuming American) you probably wont find one (without rebates, incentives, stimulus,etc) for less than $35,000. Now this is going with 4 doors, all the bells and whistles, 4X4 and nice wheels.(isnt that what caused all this?). Oh yeah, I priced a looooooaaaaaddeddd Mustang Cobra GT, not the standard GT, the bad-ass one. Black on black, every option you could want except the trophy girlfriend to sit in the passenger seat, I mean your wife. Um. Anyway, it was --according to the dealer--way more than the sticker. $69,000 on the sticker, but he'd sacrifice it for $125,000. Are you kidding me? This is why my insurance is so frigging high!!! I have to insure my family against hitting some jackass in a car that a NORMAL family could buy a house with. Or two, as long as you dont live in some city with inflated home prices, which, by the way, a 3 br, 2 bath not so long ago would go from 50-80,000. Remember that? I know prices go up, but they should NOT go up exponentially. When I exited the military in 1993 I bought a modular home and 2 1/2 acres in the country for $54,000. Yes, we live in podunk, but do some checking-Preston county has some very high prices compared to other counties. We appear to be a "quaint" destination for hoitey-toidey career folk from other places(MON, Garret,MD., etc.) and for retirement folk. GREAT.

Yes, its bad everywhere. No, we are not exclusive in misery. I think we have made our bed and now we must lie in it for awhile. We have had a false prosperity and now we must dig ourselves out from the muck and mire and rebuild our industry and ourselves much as folks did after the great depression. Insurance, gas, over-priced homes and vehicles-all must be atoned for and we must find a new balance, a new center for ourselves. The world is waking up and we must not put blinders on anymore. Now I have gone too deep and will save something for a future rant, but take a moment to think about some of what I have said. Remember your neighbor that makes $40,000 ayear and somehow bought a $300,000 house. Ask yourself if that pretty, new vehicle is really worth the price of a "normal" house.

I would really appreciate any advice that you all have, but first, let's take stock: I cant get rid of the kid(he doesnt turn 18 til February), I cant really get rid of the vehicles because I dont think Malls have hitching posts and the drive-thru places wouldnt find feces very funny or practical and I have to keep insurance for what-I-dont-know. So where does that leave us? Bent over a barrel, that's where. This rant has calmed me down some and I know it wasnt all that informative and it wont do much for the wife. Or the kid. He probably will wish he lived with one of you at about 4 o'clock today. Hmmm. Need a houseguest? Me...not him.