I’ve recently purchased my own car insurance for the first time in my life. Before now I was always just on my parents’ policy. Now that I’m supposedly an adult (so they say), I shopped around for policies. I’ve started to understand why Ned Flanders considers insurance a form of gambling. You can pay this much a year, and if you get in a wreck you get this much. But pay just a little bit more, and you get way more than that if you get in a wreck.
Here’s the thought process:
What are the odds that I will get in a wreck? I mean, I pass cars on the road all of the time, most of them are not wrecked. Well I suppose it could happen... maybe. We could fix the car with a five dollar check from Bob’s Brand Insurance, right? Well maybe not. Maybe we need more. Do you think the Camry is worth 75k? Yeah, lets insure it for that much. Wait, what about bodily injury insurance. Nothing in my body will ever cost more than 10k to fix, right? More? Maybe we need seven and a half digits on that figure. How’s that look? Five thousand dollars a year premium?? Well maybe we don’t need to insure the XBox behind one of the fifteen inch subs.
And so forth and so on. No matter what happens, the house always wins.
Marge: I’m sure your insurance will cover the house.
Maude: Uh, well, no. Neddy doesn’t believe in insurance. He considers it a form of gambling.
—The Simpsons: “Hurricane Neddy” (Episode 4F07)