Sigh, AIG Again

I find it funny that photographers are getting quite ingenious with their shots of the AIG headquarters building since it's in the news so much. Nice photo, eh?

This whole AIG business has be stumped. From my point of view as a measley little peon at the very bottom of the pecking order, you pay and pay and pay an insurance company for covering "potential" losses of whatever it is you are insuring. The point, as far as I can tell, is to be sure that you don't lose everything should you be involved in an auto accident or, God forbid, your house should burn down.  You can make those monthly payments religiously for years, but forget one and your rates go up or after taking all that money from you, your policy is cancelled.  Barring that side of the scam, if you should actually need them to pay out, they refuse as a matter of course the first time you request it! So, what's the point of sending an insurance company all your money?

Somehow, some way, AIG is sitting on top of the heap of mess that is the global economy today.  Yesterday, it was outrage over the bailout money, once again, going out as bonuses to the idiots that flubbed up in the first place. (Hey, I can screw up too. Can I have a gigantic bonus?) Today, it is revealed that it is not bailout money that is going toward idiot bonuses. That comes from the stockpile of money the company has. (So why do they need a bailout again?)  The AIG bailout money is paying off Goldman Sachs et al, who are also receiving huge bailout packages!

Let me get this straight. I send in my money like a nice little sheep to have it sitting there and waiting should I get into an accident and need a huge chunk of money in a hurry. I go years and years and years without ever requesting insurance money. Back when I was young, insurance companies actually paid back some of the money paid in if you chose to cancel the policy. That doesn't happen anymore. When I did manage to have enough bad luck to hit a deer on night, I called my insurance company and got a runaround. After that, I let the body shop deal with the insurance company. It took 6 weeks for the body shop to get paid so that I could have my truck back! What really pissed me off is that the amount the company paid out to fix my truck was minuscule compared to how much I paid in over the years.

So, they take everyone's money and invest it in risky endeavors, lose it, then go crying to the government for more of my money in the form of tax dollars. There's just something gravely wrong in this picture. Insurance has got to be the biggest scam ever, and it's legal.

Here's what we should do. Instead of sending in payments to insurance companies, send it in to a savings account instead. Let that savings pile up as insurance against the unthinkable and collect the interest yourself. Let's just stop giving away all our money right now.