NEVER CHARGE ELASTIC PRICES FOR AN INELASTIC GOOD STORY 1 I built a 4x4 triumph TR-7 with a full-roller Chevy 400 on a Scout chassis when I was 18 years old. In New Mexico? You don't even need to get the thing inspected. It's a Scout. It's insured as a Scout. But in Washington they believe in dumb shit like "safety" so they want an inspection that was a bit beyond the abilities of a nineteen year old with a pocket full of tools to pass. Things were fine until I drove that sucker up to Vancouver to see Nine Inch Nails and in dealing with its random overheating problems on Robson street I tapped a Volvo. He got out, I got out, he decided there was no damage, I decided there was no damage, we swapped insurance cards anyway, and a month later, my dad used that as the excuse for us getting dropped by our insurance company rather than my sister totaling a 3rd car. So now I need insurance in WA state because they can get insurance without me, but since I'm out-of-state I'm not gonna get covered anyway (was the excuse, which was bullshit, my parents are awful and always have been). And I'm up talking to an insurance agent and I'm saying it's a Scout and she says "any modifications" and I say "...some" and she looks at me and says "go on" and I am a shitty liar. Eventually she tells me to just drive it by the office. I do. She doubles over in laughter as I wave. She calls me two days later. Because you are required to have insurance to get a license plate in WA state, there must be an insurance company of last resort, which means the state has an insurance company. And they will insure my vehicle, sight unseen, for $2500 a month. Suffice it to say the vehicle never really moved again. STORY 2 I built a birth center with a naturopathic doctor and two birth suites when I was 43 years old. In California? You don't even need to get the thing inspected. It's an office. It's insured as an office, and you don't have to insure offices. But in Washington they believe in dumb shit like "safety" so they want an inspection that you damn betcha we met (just re-upped last week, in fact) and they absolutely want you to have medical malpractice insurance. There are only so many states that even license midwives and even fewer that require malpractice but since it's required by the state, you guessed it - the lender of last resort is the state. FORTUNATELY FOR US we had a nice long uneventful tail in California which meant we have one of the only non-state policies written, which probably saves us $30k a year, maybe more. Pretty much every birth center around us is closing or for sale and that is a direct consequence of rising insurance costs and stagnant insurance payouts (and COVID). __________________________________________ It's true, fair and accurate to say that Section 8 housing is over-represented from a minority standpoint. It's also true, fair and accurate to say that Section 8 housing is over-represented from a low-income senior standpoint, and from a mental illness standpoint. Paul was Section 8. My crazy girlfriend's schizophrenic aunt and uncle were Section 8, and they chain-smoked so much in their apartment that the landlord had to evict them and tear the unit (and two neighboring units) down to the drywall to return it to "habitable" after a Section 8 inspection. Two things can be true: minorities, the former homeless, the mentally ill and indigent senior citizens can be entirely equal to everyone else from a moral, spiritual, ethical and intellectual standpoint AND the overhead of providing housing for them can come at a premium due to circumstances beyond their control. They could pass a law? That says insurance companies have to insure buildings that take Section 8? And the insurance companies will go "fine fuck you we'll add it to your bill." Then rents go up, then your Section 8 vouchers don't cover as much, then more people are homeless, then Section 8 vouchers go up not nearly enough because Republicans hate poor people, then rents go up, lather rinse repeat [for 85 years.)(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_8_(housing)). Ultimately? if the goal is to house the public, we need to invest in public housing. Like every other advanced economy on the planet.