If you listen to the commentators, they all sing the same song. We’ve now entered the internet age. This is supposed to convince us something new and wonderful has happened. It’s such a complete break with the past it heralds the beginning of a new information age in which, somehow, we can all get ahead and do things never possible before. This is, of course, pure rubbish. The only difference between the digital age and the hard-copy age that went before it is the ease of access. Having a PC or some other online device gives you access to a vast library with a search engine to help you find the pages you need more easily. But, when you have the right page on the screen in front of you, it’s the same words you could have found in a book or some other written material. All that’s changed is the way the words are presented to you.

In these difficult economic times, everyone is playing the game of looking for savings on the must-haves. When the job may be lost because of cuts in state or federal budgets – for example, if the defense cuts follow on from the failure of the Supercommittee to agree a deficit reduction package, thousands of jobs will be lost – no one wants big regular commitments. That means discounts is the name of the game when it comes to shopping for insurance. Putting the question of the deductible to one side, the most common saving comes from bundling an auto with a homeowners policy. Insurers usually offer not less than 10% in premium rates which, in these difficult times, can be a good deal. Of course, before you sign up, you complete the shopping around, getting quotes for the policies separately and bundled together from several different companies. Never assume you cannot do better separately if you change insurers.

The world frequently disappoints us. We all hope people will prove honest and good neighbors. Yet we more often find ourselves on the receiving end of dishonesty and selfishness. When this is just one-to-one, we can attempt to arrange our affairs to minimize future losses or opportunities for conflict. But when the dishonesty is on an industrial scale, it ends up costing us all extra dollars, and there’s little or nothing we can do about it. Over the last two or three years, it’s been impossible to pick up a newspaper without seeing a story about rising auto insurance premiums, often caused by the rapidly increasing levels of fraud. That, as they say, is the tip of the iceberg. The wave of gangs crashing their cars and claiming medical expenses is only worth a few billion a year. Unfortunately, a few billion is peanuts. When it comes to Medicaid and Medicare, the FBI estimates the amount fraudulently claimed to be between $60 and 200 billion a year.

It seems that the traditional discrimination between male and female drivers will end very soon thanks to the European Court of Justice, which has approved the ban on price discrimination and set a three year period for the insurance companies to comply. This is certainly good news for male drivers, especially the younger ones, who are traditionally charged with higher premiums, and also means that female drivers will be subjected to higher premiums as a logical move by the insurance providers to split even the costs in order to comply with the new rules.

The debate over car insurance price discrimination has been a long and heated one. Traditionally male drivers were charged with higher premiums because they were more often involved in accidents if compared to female drivers. And knowing that the insurance providers deal only with risk factors when calculating their rates as a result female drivers were always getting better rates then men. There are a lot of explanations of why female drivers are less risky then men behind the wheel. Male drivers tend to be more aggressive on the road, driving faster and taking more risks. And this of course leads to more accidents and insurance claims filed by men. So, in fact the math behind such discrepancy in rates for different genders can be understood.

It’s a sad fact of life but machines work for less than human beings. In the good old days, every machine needed a human to watch over it and make sure it did not mess up. Now all you do is plug in these new generations of clever computerised things and they can work for days and weeks without ever having to step outside to enjoy a cigarette. It’s enough to make Karl Marx turn over in his grave as the workers of the world have slowly been losing the power to sell their labour. But inside every silver lining is a pig’s ear, or something. If a business can operate with fewer human beings, it’s making big savings that can be passed on to us, the customers. If you’re still able to find work and can afford to insure your car, this is a good thing. If you’re one of the replaced humans and now find yourself on the scrap heap of life, this is bitter medicine.

In a way, this subject sounds a little ghoulish. Insuring the lives of your own children gives you a benefit if they die. This would be ironic because, while they are children, all you do is pay out money to look after them. Should they die, you are saved all these costs. To get additional cash. . . Except, a few children do make a real financial contribution to the family as actors, entertainers and writers. When their earnings may be millions during their childhood, it genuinely is worth insuring them. Indeed, this may be done alongside the television, movie or other employers. Remember some like Justin Bieber are earning small fortunes as singers and musicians, often appearing on Nickelodeon and Radio Disney which feature teen singers and very successfully promote the music to the teen market. For arguments sake, imagine the crisis if Daniel Radcliffe had fallen off the griffin into the loch and drowned while filming Harry Potter. His parents would have needed the insurance money to pay for the state funeral.