Slashdot Mirror
Here Comes the Panopticon: Insurance Companies
New submitter jbmartin6 writes: The Panopticon may be coming, but perhaps not how we think. Instead of a massive government surveillance program, we might end up subjected to ubiquitous monitoring to save on our insurance premiums. The "internet of things (you can't get away from)" makes this more and more possible. Here a company saved money on its health insurance premiums by distributing Fitbits and an online service to enable reporting fitness gains back to the insurance company. We've already seen the stories on using black boxes to monitor drivers. There is even an insurance company named Panoptic! Heck, why not a premium hike for owners of this or that "aggressiveness gene"? What if in the future we got a quick "+50 cents" tweet for every scoop of ice cream? I suppose the natural stopping point might be the balance between an individual's willingness to be monitored and the desire to reduce insurance premiums.
It's the perfect libertarian excuse for corporate abuse.
Bullshit. Auto and Health insurance are now mandatory by force of law. That is where abuse comes in. A free market (without the coercion-by-government) would have insurance companies charging lower premiums for two reasons; first, because competition would kick in to keep prices low, and second, they would do so knowing that w/o the force of law, individuals wouldn't have to buy their products in the first place.
So no - auto and health insurance are no longer "free" markets in the true sense - governments (federal for the latter, state for the former) have made damn certain of that.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
They're not whoring themselves out, they're making a choice to expose their safe driving for a discount. It's just the filter of your own mental illness that makes them look like bad people, rather than just people that make different choices than you do. You're the problem, not them. Get some professional help, and lay off the Slashderp. The paranoid, not very bright community here is feeding your delusions.
The insurance industry doesn't truly have a captive base... Even though it is required there a thousands of carriers and fierce competition.
Most of the stupid whiny shit you said was off, but half baked conspiracy nuts that bitch about everything need to have their genes expunged from humanities pool so we have a chance for survival.
When you speak... Stop for a moment, take a deep breath, and tell yourself "I'm a meaningless speck of dirt in the universe, this isn't about me, and I will have no impact now or in the future on anything of value". With that in mind, stop freaking out about everything. If you want the discount, take the discount, if you don't want the discount, don't take the fuckin discount.
It's designed to exploit people who are deliberately freeloading off of the system, by engaging in excessive risky behaviour, forcing other people to pay the costs. No-one forces you to drive dangerously. And if you want to drive dangerously, you still have the option of paying the higher fees.
What is your argument that safe drivers should be compelled to subsidise people who take risks?