3 ms·

Is paying different amounts based on measured risk factor really discrimination in the way you intend it?

by tudelo 8y ago

oh_sigh 8y ago
Yes, because the risk factor isn't that you're a young male, it is because you are a dangerous driver, which is correlated with young males. But it also means that there are safe driving young men out there who are subsidizing dangerous female drivers.
QasimK 8y ago
Yes it is. Should the cost of car insurance, health insurance, or life insurance vary based on the measured risk from your skin colour, or height for example? A “lucky” individual has reduced premiums, while an “unlucky” individual has increased premiums, and neither has any control over it! Comparatively, someone benefits and someone suffers (both are undeserved). After thinking about it, I want to hear from someone who thinks the opposite to me - that it is perfectly fair for someone to pay more and, thus, someone else to pay less, due to a factor that neither has any choice about.
- qwertycrackers 8y ago
  The reason someone would say it is fair is because insurance isn't designed to just be free healthcare our car repairs or whatever. Insurance is a scene designed to deal with the problem that some unlikely events are too expensive to pay for oneself. We pool our money into insurance policies to allow anyone holding the policy to weather such events by the virtue of having guaranteed support from the other policy-holders. However, for this system to work, each person does need to pay in approximately enough to cover the risk they create to the policy. So yes, more risky people do need to pay more, because they are creating more costs to the policy. Basically, insurance isn't free healthcare, and we shouldn't be treating it that way.
candu 8y ago
Yes: see redlining, racial profiling, etc. All of these can be "justified" by appealing to measured risk, but we consider them very discriminatory from both an ethical and a legal perspective. Think about it, though - what is really being measured? Maybe there's a small subset of super high-risk male drivers who the rest of us are subsidizing. If they were to base my insurance rates on measurable individual characteristics, that would be much less suspect IMO.

Is paying different amounts based on measured risk factor really discrimination in the way you intend it?

by tudelo 8y ago

Is paying different amounts based on measured risk factor really discrimination in the way you intend it?

Yes, because the risk factor isn't that you're a young male, it is because you are a dangerous driver, which is correlated with young males. But it also means that there are safe driving young men out there who are subsidizing dangerous female drivers.

QasimK 8y ago

Yes it is. Should the cost of car insurance, health insurance, or life insurance vary based on the measured risk from your skin colour, or height for example? A “lucky” individual has reduced premiums, while an “unlucky” individual has increased premiums, and neither has any control over it! Comparatively, someone benefits and someone suffers (both are undeserved). After thinking about it, I want to hear from someone who thinks the opposite to me - that it is perfectly fair for someone to pay more and, thus, someone else to pay less, due to a factor that neither has any choice about.

qwertycrackers 8y ago
The reason someone would say it is fair is because insurance isn't designed to just be free healthcare our car repairs or whatever. Insurance is a scene designed to deal with the problem that some unlikely events are too expensive to pay for oneself. We pool our money into insurance policies to allow anyone holding the policy to weather such events by the virtue of having guaranteed support from the other policy-holders. However, for this system to work, each person does need to pay in approximately enough to cover the risk they create to the policy. So yes, more risky people do need to pay more, because they are creating more costs to the policy. Basically, insurance isn't free healthcare, and we shouldn't be treating it that way.

candu 8y ago

Yes: see redlining, racial profiling, etc. All of these can be "justified" by appealing to measured risk, but we consider them very discriminatory from both an ethical and a legal perspective. Think about it, though - what is really being measured? Maybe there's a small subset of super high-risk male drivers who the rest of us are subsidizing. If they were to base my insurance rates on measurable individual characteristics, that would be much less suspect IMO.