Thursday, May 11, 2006

Insurance To Keep Crime at an All Time High

As a parent rising the future generation of America, I have worked hard to teach my children that you must work for your wants, follow the rules and respect their neighbors and community. I have watched other parents struggle along trying to raise decent hard working young adults also.

As a professional in the medical community I have seen the affects of crime on our youth. I have treated the victims as well as the perpetrators of these crimes. I have often wondered what it is that makes an other wise good kid go bad.

Well here is part of the problem…A young person spends most of their day dreaming time thinking and planning for their future…their thoughts roam around their first vehicle, their first apartment, and what they will do to support themselves. I have watched my own as well as many friends of my children move through the stages of childhood and into the next phase as adults…now this is where an other wise good person can go bad..

All of the “must haves” as well as the cost of living are the biggest issue we have in our country today. Our government, for our own protection, has become BIG DADDY. We are told what to do, when to do it and that is will cost us a lot of money to follow these rules or we go to jail. Now that sounds like the communist countries we are trying to free. Only difference is our country “gives” us the luxury of being able to buy cool expensive toys. This pacification technique works well for toddlers and the rich, but it causes the lower income families to struggle for survival. These families not only live without the “incentive toys” but they live without necessities too. I know I used to be one of them.

So now a young person starting out on their own needs to have financial backing or they will spend all their time frustrated and depressed…this will lead to crime, domestic violence as well as the making and distribution of drugs for a fix to their money problems. I have seen this happen many times and am now afraid it is going to become the trend in our country.

A young person today needs a college education before they turn 18 now. There are NO entry level jobs in our state that pay enough for a young person to make ends meet, let alone have any extra money to reward them selves for a job well done. There also is NO ONE in our country that does not require “a little extra” for leisure time.

Our young adults today don’t have a chance. Rent in our city is going to cost them at least $650.00 a month that is $7800.00 a year for a very small studio style apartment in one of the highest crime areas in town. If this is not pushing them to crime I am not sure what would. Add on the monthly eminence bills, and you probably have another $200.00 a month for electric and gas. Then of course they have to eat, so let’s add another $150.00 a month. This won’t feed them but one meal a day, but when you’re poor or starting out on life you must sacrifice somewhere. So now they must make $1000.00 a month just too barely survive.

So now the problem of How to get to work and the incentive to keep going, there is none! Pricing car with my son we decided that he needed to buy a “cheap older car”, we decided this for economic reasons, no car payment, and gas mileage should be better, and insurance should be cheaper. WRONG!!

A 1991 Chevy Cavalier with 149,000 miles on it has a “blue book” value of $800.00. This value is based on the car being in the best possible shape. Fair market value on this car is only $350.00; this particular car has some body damage and is basically a disposable car. So upon returning home, we looked up insurance, sure we had found the car that would not cost the kid his left arm in insurance.

Wrong again, Insurance on this little car is going to cost my son $2000.00 every six months!! That is $500.00 a month for the four month period with a two month “grace period”. So this young man will have to pay for his cheap car eight times over market value a year in order to drive to work. This does not include gas and maintenance either.

Now Insurance is a must, my oldest son and his family has been struggling to get off of Welfare now for a year. They successfully completed that task three months ago. Although their new budget did not allow any extra money for a soda, extra diapers, or auto insurance.

They were pulled over for a dirty license plate. Their car was “arrested” and it took a week to get it back from the municipality. Now the fines for retrieving this car were not too bad…about $500.00. But needless to say that money came from what they had saved up for rent. So now the kids are driving legal and homeless. Their two babies sleeping in the back seat of the car, okay so my kid has family to rely on but what happens to those that do not, or those whose family can not afford to help them. They turn to the streets. They turn to selling drugs and stealing to make ends meet.

We as society blame them, we blame their parents, we blame their neighbors, but we never blame ourselves. Could the rising crime rate have anything to do with the fact that a young person needs at least $2500.00 a month to barely survive? I am appalled that our law makers can not see this trend. Maybe they just ignore it. To change it would mean pay cuts for many of them. Well I encourage all of them to put their “extra money” aside for six months. Live like the rest of the community. Pay the gas bill with the electric bill money to avoid being shut off. Be forced to go with out food and diapers so you can pay the astronomical insurance rates on your car so as to be driving legal. I encourage anyone that makes more than 32,000 a year to try this. Put yourselves in someone else’s shoes for a while. Understand that the poor are not poor because they want to be. They are poor because the rich in our country have made them that way.

They are poor because insurance companies are not regulated on their fees. It is a competitive market.

A few years back I was pulled over for speeding, I had no proof of insurance and at this time the law was new. Despite the fact that I had insurance, I fought the ticket. Many hours I spent in the law library at school. With the help of a “law major” we discovered that our constitution does have an amendment regarding the mandatory insurance law.

This amendment was put together in the 80’s. This amendment states that “If any state or institution makes insurance, uniforms, and other purchasable commodities mandatory, that state or institution MUST provide these at a discount rate.”

I have never heard of an insurance company offering to pay part of anyone’s premium. I have never heard of the state making that offer either. But I have seen the cost of said insurance triple in the last ten years.

So in conclusion…if the government would stop allowing the rich to rape the poor, the poor would not need to turn to violence and drugs to survive. Survival is a mammal’s strongest instinct. Humans are mammals and have this instinct to do what ever it takes to survive.