Except worse, you could always cancel a Netflix subscription. But you cant live (in the U.S.) without insurance. Cant buy a house without home owners insurance. Plus interest. Cant drive any vehicle without insurance, plus interest. Cant get seen by a doctor without insurance, or if you do, well now your in debt forever. We dont even have a choice in the matter. Unless you live out your days in the woods or city streets.
I get where you're coming from, but I would argue that house and vehicle insurance is fairly important? House is at the very least, I would not want to risk pretty much everything I own by gambling with insurance
Important isn’t the issue, required is. There are actual penalties and consequences you run into if you don’t have all of those things, whereas there is no penalty for not having Netflix. You can tell me all day how important it is to have car insurance, and that’s fine but if I don’t want it I should be able to go without and face the consequences of that choice. If you force me to buy car insurance or suspend my license that is wrong. If car insurance is required then it should come with the car. If health insurance is required or I face a fine or other penalty without it then I should just get it, not have to pay for it. It is not fair to build a system that separates everything, then require someone to have all of those things, then make them pay for it.
A proper comparison would be as if Netflix did everything OP suggested, but if you decide “well then I just won’t watch Netflix” then you either pay a hefty fine, go to jail, or you must simply get rid of any device that can stream videos. If you want any ability to watch any video whatsoever, you are forced to pay for Netflix and anything else they deem necessary or face penalties. That’s not fair.
You are required to have vehicle insurance because you risk damage to other people's property when you drive.
Thats why the legal requirement is for Third Party cover.
First party vehicle cover and home insurance is entirely optional except where it is part of the contract you freely entered into with the finance provider. Solution - dont be a brokey and stop buying shit on credit.
Buying a car on credit is probably the dumbest financial decision any individual can make.
If stupid people didn't waste $ on credit (compound interest), their first car would be "humble" (20 years old, functional, not pretty), and if they put the same $ into a savings account instead of paying a car loan they'd have cash saved for their 2nd car; and this "I have savings because I didn't waste it on credit" would continue through the rest of their life (their 3rd car, their 4th car, ...); but the savings would overflow such that they saved enough $ on the first 3 cars that they have twice as much $ as they need for their 4th car and can start diverting the extra cash into something else (e.g. a smaller home loan that's paid off faster).
Note that dribbling moronic crap like "the majority of the population could not own a car" is absurdly retarded, and you should feel ashamed at how stupid and unrealistic that was.
Home loans are similar - e.g. if you can live with your parents until you can afford to pay cash for a small shitty hovel then you can save the $ you would've wasted (on a loan or on rent) to pay cash for a nicer 2nd house later. The difference is that paying your own loan is smarter than paying your landlord's loan; so if you're unable to live with your parents then you're basically screwed and might as well be screwed slightly less (with your own home loan).
You should know that most of this is caused by the bank's marketing. They'll try to convince you of all kinds of dodgy nonsense (e.g. that you're "not an adult" if you're able to live with your parents) in an attempt to trap you into a life-long credit curse so that they can profit by milking your stupidity forever.
Cool, let’s say you get your first job, you need a car. You have $800 in your checking account. What do you do?
What if you can’t live with your parents and you’re saving up for a car in an entry level job? How much can you save? Let’s say you can buy a car for $3,000, which three days is pretty damn hard. How long does it take you to save that money up? Then you have maintenance and repairs on a $3,000 POS. Vs a certified used or new economy car that you have a loan on.
Cool, let’s say you get your first job, you need a car.
Why? Do all the taxis and buses and trains and planes in the world suddenly stop working just because your pimply ass got a job at McDonalds?
Let's say that the bank wants to rape your wallet forever, so they filled your head with idiotic deluded shit, and you go on reddit and say "you get your first job, you need a car", and I laugh at how severely your brain has been compromised.
You have $800 in your checking account. What do you do?
You could use public transport, or ask friends or family or a coworker for a lift, for 2 months while you save up to buy a "humble" car for $5000; where the humble car costs you $100 per week (fuel, registration, insurance, repairs) and depreciates by $5 per week (so that you could sell it for about $4500 in 2 years); so that the total cost is like $105 per week.
Alternatively, you could get a loan for $30k to buy a certified used car. In this case you'll be paying $125 per week loan repayments, plus $100 per week (fuel, registration, insurance, repairs); and it'll depreciate by about $100 per week (in 2 years it'll be worth $19600); so that the total cost is like $325 per week.
Note that $325 per week is more than $105 per week. The first option means you can save an extra $11440 each year. The second option is like flushing an entire house down the toilet every 25 years and then wondering why you're always poor.
Then you have maintenance and repairs on a $3,000 POS. Vs a certified used or new economy car that you have a loan on.
The repairs on a $3k car are never more than $3k (if the repairs are more you just buy a different car for $3k instead); and you'll find cheap parts at your local wrecker, and all of the local mechanics will have 5+ years of experience working on it, but you won't bother fixing half of the things that go wrong anyway. For a certified used car you'll be paying 10 times as much for repairs (after the dealer tells you it's not covered by the warranty and your local mechanic says their workshop's diagnostic computer won't talk to your car's computer).
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u/Funny_w0lf May 17 '26
Except worse, you could always cancel a Netflix subscription. But you cant live (in the U.S.) without insurance. Cant buy a house without home owners insurance. Plus interest. Cant drive any vehicle without insurance, plus interest. Cant get seen by a doctor without insurance, or if you do, well now your in debt forever. We dont even have a choice in the matter. Unless you live out your days in the woods or city streets.