The Real Reason Why Detroit's Auto Insurance Is So High

One of the hot-button issues for Democrats in Michigan and Detroit is the complaint that Detroit's auto insurance rates are incredibly high, as in on average $4,000 a year for insurance high. Of course, the Democrats tend to claim this is due to racism.

There's a reason for the rates being so high, and it isn't racism.

Lets take Y for an example.

Why Y? Well, why not? Y is a female Detoriter I've come across in my legal journey in court recently who has a little issue.

You see, Y has been driving with her license suspended.

How long?

She's been driving suspended continuously for 15 years!

Y's license was suspended back in 2004 and she's been driving on it suspended ever since.

Prior to that she's had her license suspended and restored multiple times from 1999 until 2005, when it got suspended and stayed suspended as she never bothered resolving the 2005 suspension, she just tacked a series of more suspensions on top of that one.

Why? Because she doesn't pay tickets when she gets them and had been driving often without insurance. This has not however stopped her from driving all around the Metropolitan Detroit area.

She's unfortunately not a particularly good driver and tends to get pulled over. When she's and when she is pulled over, the police tend to quickly find out she's driving on a suspended license and then charge her yet again for driving suspended along with the reason why she was pulled over, she doesn't pay the tickets and it stays suspended

These episodes of her being caught speeding and improper lane changing and going through red lights mainly take place outside of Detroit and she complained that clearly, she's being ticketed and pulled over because she's being "profiled".

No, Y is bring ticketed not due to profiling, but because she's driving, and driving badly enough to warrant police attention, on a long-suspended license.

Oh, and Y's driving record goes on for 10, yes ten pages worth of charges and convictions for driving while license suspended and related charges that she keeps getting pulled over for and ticketed by the police.

Insurance costs are high in Detroit not due to racism.

Insurance costs are sky-high due to the fact that insurance companies don't like risk and due to Y and people like her driving around without insurance and with suspended licenses, and causing accidents without the slightest care, Detroit is a very high risk and high cost area.

In short, the real reason for Detroit's high insurance rates can be summed up in one word - Detroiters.

Insurance Timidity Is Not A Reason For Anti-Gun Smugness

The Freep and its columnists are still up to their smug anti-gun ways: Nancy Kaffer: The unintended consequence of arming teachers

So get this: Remember how a bunch of state legislatures passed laws allowing teachers to carry guns? Well, in many of those states, schools are now having trouble getting insurance.

....

The Michigan Legislature passed a bill last December that would have allowed people with concealed carry permits into schools; Gov. Rick Snyder vetoed it in the wake of the school shooting in Newtown, Conn. It seemed like a good move at the time, but in retrospect, it seems even smarter.

Oh, so according to Ms. Kaffer, a lack of insurance coverage for such events is now a smart reason against allowing armed teachers or other armed responsible adults to be present in schools now is it?

This insurance issue could be fixed via legislation or by allowing the insurance company to require an additional rider for coverage for incidents involving firearms at the school. Insurance companies are notoriously shy about risk, and anything outside of their traditional policies takes them some time to become comfortable with the new reality - namely that licensed carries of firearms are a very low-risk population indeed.

Note that the current liability of a school's insurance company, including one that refuses to write policies allowing licensed firearms to be present and as a result creates a nice gun-free victim-rich zone, thus enabling a madman to enter a school and kill a ton of kids is zero.

Now let's see if Nancy can smugly think about what smart results that incentive creates.