Wednesday: Hili dialogue

35 thoughts on “Wednesday: Hili dialogue”

1. Even if it is Tuesday, rather than Wednesday which is what I have on the East Coast, it’s really not so cruel with a delightful word from Hili.

   1. Chews-day! A day to chew stuff over…

      We can amuse ourselves with this, on Friday’s eclipse –

      “The co-founder of Christian website Root Source, Bob O’Dell, told WND that the message was a sign of judgment. The eclipse will be total across the North Pole, and so is not pointed at anyone in particular.

      “The North Pole can’t really be called the territory of any particular nation or people,” O’Dell told the site. “This is likely a message from God to the entire world.””

      http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/fridays-solar-eclipse-will-be-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-the-world-say-christian-pastors-10114298.html

      1. PS Hili is as wise as ever – that had me chuckling…
         Not, I hasten to add, over poor PCC’s car!
         🙁

         1. It’s nearly 9.00 am Thursday in NZ – don’t know what the problem is!

2. Not only did you do anything wrong, but it appears that you (or your car) didn’t do anything other than exist.

   1. The universe really IS indifferent to vehicular damage!

      1. Or at least insurance companies are indifferent to the money in your wallet being, you know, yours.

         1. I can’t drive!

   2. That’s not the way insurance works here in BC. Here, the bus driver being 100% at fault, his liability insurance pays the whole cost for the PCCmobile. His collision rider if any, pays for damage to the bus, minus his deductible.

      I don’t understand the difference, but perhaps it is because ICBC has a monopoly on automotive liability coverage in the province (socialised insurance!1!).

      Still no death panels here for drivers that are too old or expensive to insure any more, but they must be coming.

3. King of Kings Ozymandias am I. If any want to know how great I am and where I lie, let him outdo me in my work.

   And a cat is based on homeopathic doses of humility.

   1. Good one 🙂

4. Why isn’t the bus driver or his employer responsible for paying your deductible?

   1. Insurance is a little like religion. The actual benefit is invisible, like electricity and skeletons.

      1. In Elizabethan times you might pay a sum to someone who would then pay you back with interest if you returned safely from a trip abroad. The betting was that you might not return…

         1. Kind of like life insurance today, except the inverse. Instead of ‘if I die, I get mouneh’, it’s ‘if I die, You get mouneh’. But the question is, what am I going to do with all that mouneh when I’m dead? I like the Elizabethan’s way best. You get to spend the extra mouneh, or put it in china pigs.

      2. I love it when people channel Philomena!

5. My deductible is $250. So,see? Not really so bad.

   1. I know; I get a reduced deductible because I am a good driver and never get tickets or have accidents that were my fault. (Of course, it helps that I barely drive.) But still, why should I have to pay when I did nothing wrong? I’m going to ask them, but I suspect it will have to do with paying for the damage inspector, paperwork, etc.

      1. You may be able to get the other guy to pay your deductible but I think it’s about how your insurance works where you are. I find it all confusing.

      2. I don’t think that’s the way it works. The deductible level is normally selected by the insured from a limited choice. It is not earmarked for any costs at all. It’s merely a type of wager that helps you absorb the impact of loss. If you are on a tight budget, a $2000 deductible would be too painful, so you opt for $100, but your premiums go up accordingly, which presumably you don’t mind so much because its spread over time (and hidden from immediate awareness).
         Next time I’ll be askin’ why there’s more water in a tap than you’d think.

      3. PCC, I humbly suggest that you ask your insurance company how much your premium would be if you had a higher deductible. You may find that the lower premium cost would more than pay for the occasional damage. I don’t sell insurance but I am a licensed insurance agent(I consult on “risk management strategies”).

         As I point out to my paying customers, there is nothing on a car that costs less than $100 dollars to repair. Which means a $100 deductible will result in the company paying out money. Which means they will charge accordingly.

         1. I’d add to that…that many insurance policies (not just vehicle, but health and whatever else) seem to have some sort of a function behind the calculation of premium and deductibles, and there usually exists a “sweet spot” that can stand out with a bit of spreadsheet analysis. Run some numbers on how much total you might expect to pay per year (or decade or whatever) in deductibles versus how much you’re guaranteed to pay in premiums, assuming a worst-case scenario for the deductibles. There will likely be a point, somewhere in the middle but perhaps closer to the one end or the other, where the total of premiums plus deductibles is at its lowest. That’s where you (probably) want to be.

            And, if you can afford to self-insure, that’s always the cheapest option. You just have to have the finances to consider whatever it is that you’re insuring as financially disposable as you might, say, an handheld appliance that you might carelessly drop and ruin. For most people, having to replace a car would be very difficult financially and paying for anything but the most trivial of illnesses or injuries would be financially catastrophic, which is why insurance makes sense for those things but not for egg beaters. Warren Buffet, on the other hand, doesn’t need health nor vehicular insurance unless there’s some law that says he’s got to carry it. His investments earn him more during the time it takes him to sneeze than he’ll ever spend in a lifetime of health care or cars.

            Cheers,

            b&

            1. Exactly so.

               Here’s a very simple notion about insurance. You should buy insurance for things that are relatively unlikely to happen but which will have large financial consequences if they do. Don’t buy insurance for things that are likely to happen nor for things that don’t cost much if they do happen.

            2. …at least, not unless you’re getting some other service that you find valuable. I do have an home warranty. It makes financial sense for things like the air conditioner…but it’s also a single number for me to call for something like backed-up plumbing. And that kind of thing is worth spending a few pennies on. It gives you the convenience renters enjoy by just calling the landlord to fix things that break.

               You can perhaps do cheaper by calling contractors yourself, and you can certainly do cheaper by fixing things yourself…but both those take time and energy and expertise that I’d much rather devote to other endeavors, and the cost is well worth the service I get.

               b&

      4. My experience is I paid the deductable and was reimbursed when they collected from the responsible driver.
         The insurance company wants to go after the other driver because he owes them money, too.

6. VICAR: But my car was hit by a lorry while standing in the garage and you refuse to pay my claim.
   MR.DEVIOUS: Oh well, Reverend Morrison, in your policy… It states quite clearly that no claim you make will be paid.
   VICAR: Oh dear.
   MR.DEVIOUS: You see, you unfortunately plumped for our ‘Neverpay’ policy, which, you know, if you never claim is very worthwhile, but you had to claim, and, well, there it is.
   VICAR: Oh dear, oh dear.
   –
   (From Monty Python’s “Insurance sketch.”)
   😉

   1. You can’t just leave us hanging like that!

      DEVIOUS: Still, never mind — could be worse. How’s the nude lady?
      VICAR: Oh, she’s fine. (he begins to sob)
      DEVIOUS: Look… Rev… I hate to see a man cry, so shove off out of the office, there’s a good chap.
      The vicar goes out sobbing. Cut to outside. Vicar collects a nude lady sitting in a supermarket shopping trolley… and wheels her disconsolately away. Cut back to inside of office. Close-up on Devious. He gets out some files and starts writing. Suddenly a bishop’s crook slams down on the desk in front of Devious. He looks up — his eyes register terror. Cut to reverse angle shot from below. The bishop in full mitre and robes.
      BISHOP: OK Devious…Don’t move!
      DEVIOUS: The bishop!

7. “Homeopathic doses of reason.” Brilliant!

   1. I agree. I’ll be passing that jibe on all week.

      1. as will I. I have some perfect targets for it.

8. Chicago — city of dents.

9. I believe that if the driver reported it to the University Police, and the police report indicates that the damage is the fault of the driver, then you should go to the University and ask for information on their liability insurance carrier. Your insurance company then claims against the University’s carrier (since the accident is the University’s fault, and so the damage should be compensated by the University or their insurer and not by your insurance), and you pay no deductible. At least that’s the usual practice I’m aware of.
   Now if your vehicle had been damaged with no indication of who had done it, you would be stuck with the deductible – there’s no third party to claim against.
   But I am opining based on California, not Illinois, law.
   Try it, though.

10. My wife disagrees with Hili:
    It’s not fair lumping all religions together. I think the doctrine for the Flying Spaghetti Monster was well reasoned out. It’s going to take a few centuries for blind faith to completely wipe out reason in that religion.

11. I think religion might also have homeopathic doses of sanity, too….

    b&

12. That is so brilliant, it really must be made available on a Hili t-shirt!

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