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Comment by gambiting | Hacker News Reader

You don't even need racial profiling to show that statistics harm individuals. Look at car insurance - in most countries you will have a massive premium to pay,just for committing the crime of being under 25. Even if you are 24, had your licence for 6 years, drove hundreds of thousands of miles without an accident, your insurance will still be higher than that of a 26 year old person who has just passed their drivers test and doesn't know anything about driving. Why? Only because "statistically" you are more likely to be in an accident. Well, so are men, yet it is illegal to make their car insurance higher because of their gender in almost all EU countries. You may not have done anything wrong, but are still "punished" for being part of the statistic. It makes me really upset sometimes.

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Well, they also help individuals. Think of the person who is 26 years old, has just passed their drivers' test, and then totals their car and kills the other driver. Insurance shells out a few million in liability claims. Their insurance will go up, obviously, but they're not going to be financially wrecked, and it's the rest of society that bears that burden.

The way to think of it is to think of your whole life statistically, as a series of events where you win some and you lose some. And then don't get upset over the ones you lost, because there are many others where you ended up with the winning end of the deal and you just don't remember it because humans are wired to dwell on losses more than gains.

Sorry but I just cannot agree with your first statement - even if an 18 year old driver causes a crash and kills the other driver, the insurance company is still going to pay 100% of the claim, unless the claim goes over the insurance limit on your specific policy(which in EU is unlimited for death and bodily injuries). So I do not see how paying more when you are under 25 is a benefit.

I thought that, too, with car insurance for an under 25 year old... The price difference actually was about 25 euros a year (Germany)

I am from Poland and it's similar there - the difference is negligible. But I am studying in the UK at the moment and the difference is exorbitant - I would pay almost 3000 pounds per year for insuring my 2.0L Peugeot Partner, and my friend who only passed his test few weeks after turning 26 is paying 400 pounds per year for insuring his 1.6L Golf. Just because he is older, and not because he is a safer driver.

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