> Only someone in the USA would claim that car ownership is very expensive without knowing how much it cost in most of the rest of the world I know quite well

> Only someone in the USA would claim that car ownership is very expensive without knowing how much it cost in most of the rest of the world I know quite well what cars cost in several countries, I live in the US, why do I need to bring up and compare random countries? > Insurance is basically risk pooling, and you need someone to calculate the risks, and get paid for that work. They also have to setup a lot of other things. Now, the government could be the insurer of last resort, but they aren't going to be very good at it without profit motive, or maybe it will be heavily subsidized like flood insurance in Florida Yes I get how insurances work. I don't want the government to risk pool like an insurance, I want them to offer the option of subsidized debt, much like student loans not like insurance. > We are already able to shop around for insurance. I changed insurance companies 2 times in the last 5 years because their premiums jacked up beyond what I was willing to pay. If it were just the government, I'm not sure, I guess it would be like medicare We are not talking about insurance existing as an option but being legally mandated. > it would be more like student loans? Yes, the requirement would be to sign up for the student loan like debt which you don't pay into so long as you don't cause an accident and have to pay back only the cost of the accident but unlike student loans there is no interest, only admin fees (student loans should be direct loans from the government with 0% interest but different topic). If you don't like that, then you have to get basic liability insurance. Either you protect yourself and get insurance in case of an accident or protect your cash flow and liquidity so you can own a car,home,etc... faster so that even if you get into an accident, paying it off wouldn't be as impactful as a life long debt. For me, as an example my average basic liability was around $150/mo, which is $1800/yr and $90k if I owned a car for 50 years. I have to pay that amount no matter what. The maximim coverage of basic liability here is $25k, so long as I don't injure a person or total a car to a point where I max out insurance at $25k more than 3 times in my driving life I lose $15k. If the total liability cost was averaged at 1k/yr, that's 40k I am giving up. That's several cars, a house payment, several medical emergencies!