Squeezing Blood From the Uninsured Turnip

By Gary Wickert | February 5, 2015

  • February 5, 2015 at 6:12 pm
    Don Birkholz says:
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    Didn’t see anything in the article on insurance industry opposition to mandatory auto insurance laws. Didn’t see anything in the article on the increase in food stamps due to these laws (there are four studies/surveys on increase in food stamps due to mandatory auto insurance laws.) State Farm says the benefits of mandatory auto insurance laws do not outweigh the damage they do (I assume they mean more on food stamps, more down to the food bank, more homeless, more landlords not getting paid, more hit and runs, more stolen cars, plates, etc. Some day there will be a thorough study done on the above and we will have more than the NAII study that showed 30% of the poor in Maricopa County Arizona who could not buy food or pay rent due to mandatory auto insurance.

    If Gary Wickert was low income and had 3 teens and an insurance cost of 3,000$-8,000$ per year, he would not be buying auto insurance either.

    Maybe we should legislate tazing and waterboarding of low income people who refuse to pay 30% of their income for auto insurance. First maybe the proponents should try and get pigs to fly. If you taze a pig, he might fly around a bit, but I don’t think that counts.

    Gary probably works less than one hour for his auto liability insurance. Maybe he should try working three months of the year (like some indigents do for their auto insurance), and he would not be buying mandatory auto insurance either.

    • February 9, 2015 at 10:16 am
      Otterish says:
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      If you cannot afford to insure a vehicle, you cannot afford to drive a vehicle. Time to take the bus. Period.

    • February 12, 2015 at 2:40 pm
      Diane says:
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      People need to live within their means. Why should I pay for my insurance and then still pay when someone else is at fault for an accident? I am sure they have money for their cell phone, cigarettes and alcohol.

  • February 6, 2015 at 6:07 am
    Sean Foley says:
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    Come on Don, thats not entirely fair. Gary was simply pointing out the fact that something needs to be done about this. I know in Sweden car parking fines are a % of their annual salary. Maybe auto insurance could be the same?

  • February 6, 2015 at 1:10 pm
    Andy Franken says:
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    A correction, the mandatory auto changes in Wisconsin were enacted under Governor Jim Doyle in 2009, not Governor Walker in 2011.

  • February 6, 2015 at 7:56 pm
    FurriePrincess says:
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    What they fail to mention, many of these people drive with no license as well as no insurance. Even the drunk drivers get their licenses suspended or revoked, still get behind the wheel and do it again. I guess they figure they can keep on doing it until they wind up in jail. They even walk out of the courtroom where the judge revoked their license and get behind the wheel and try to drive off. Locally, the cops sit and wait for them to try it.

    They have no sense of right and wrong or owing a duty to others. Society and Government cannot give everyone a conscience. There will always be those who just don’t care.

  • April 3, 2015 at 1:12 pm
    Kyle says:
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    Unfortunately I was recently hit by an uninsured driver who turned out to not even have a drivers license. It’s pretty hard to take a drivers license away from someone who doesn’t have one! (To make it better, my car was parked in an empty parking lot) I reported the incident to the police and had the accident documented. The driver got a few tickets and nothing more. A few days later I saw the same car with the same driver driving down the road,(no license, no insurance, no citizenship, and doesn’t speak English) $3000 of damage to my car and I’m stuck with the bill as he’s driving away with minimal fines. I have insurance that would cover uninsured drivers, but I’d still have to pay my deductible and possible face higher rates.

  • November 30, 2018 at 1:47 pm
    ALBERT LECOU says:
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    Mixing and obfuscating terms render this article suspect. Foundational supreme court ruling supports a right to travel in a private conveyance, aka car, without a state-issued license. License refers to commercial driving for hire not required to merely travel.



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