In Europe there are a lot of safety options for cars that feature both standard and additional equipment. But it’s not the same in the US. What are the reasons for that? Some insurance specialists think that it’s the lack of tort reform that puts auto insurance in the US into such a situation.

But what is a tort reform in the first place and what it has to do with auto insurance? Tort reform is a general term that refers to a change in the US civil justice framework that is required to provide a limitation of tort litigation and damage. If the reform will be applied then the negative effects litigation has on the economy will be significantly reduced.

We have to start with two simple definitions. “Sex” is the basic biology. Chromosomes are usually clear on your male or femaleness even though, on occasion, the physical body is ambiguous. Gender is sometime we construct through our culture. These are the roles we give people depending on the way they present themselves to the world. Hence, an individual may have a clear biological sex but, because of gender reassignment surgery, present to the world as a member of the opposite sex. It’s this type of confusion we address through the laws on equality and discrimination. With the repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” rule in our military, the level of social acceptance for difference is steadily improving. Whether it will include the acceptance of the right to marry is hard to predict.

For years under the Bush administration, the FDA found itself under pressure in two different ways. The first was a general cut-back in funding – something experienced by all the regulatory bodies with the GOP in power. The second was a political attack. With the pharmaceutical industry leading the charge, the FDA was often told to approve new drugs with less scrutiny or not to investigate reports of problems in newly licensed dugs. When a manufacturer has just spent tens of millions in getting approval, it does not want anything to prevent it from recovering its investment and producing a profit as quickly as possible. The results were easy to see. Staffing levels fell and the quality of those that remained was often less impressive. The work of regulating food was scaled back, enforcement of manufacturing was reined in as fewer inspections were made, and action to force the withdrawal of potentially dangerous drugs was limited. With a new President, funding is improving and the regulators are getting more interested in protecting you as consumers. One of the most positive signs of this is the enforcement action against the marketing of natural products.

How many times have you used rental autos and had to make the decision whether or not buying additional insurance for the rented vehicle. On one hand it’s an additional cost you simply don’t want to drain your wallet. On the other hand, having such a backup when driving a rented car can save from a lot of trouble if something happens while you’re behind the steering wheel. So, is there any sense in getting rental car auto insurance or not?

A certain amount of rental car insurance is simply a must when using such a vehicle. You can get the insurance from the rental company, any insurer you can typically get auto insurance quotes from, or even a credit card union.

There’s fair, and then there’s fair or not as the case may be. Looking around our fair land, it would be great to see only good stuff. But the world isn’t made like that. We found a vast expanse of space, and then the people came and messed it up by building places to live and burning fossil fuel to fill the air with city smog. And people, being people, stayed selfish and potentially criminal, so some areas have a bad record for behavior. Of course the wealthy can buy their own plots of paradise and build a wall around it. Security guards keep the rest of the world at bay. But the rest of us have to live in this urban sprawl where the problems of unemployment and the credit crunch are putting everyone under pressure.

So where do we choose to live? Most of us are trapped into an area by birth. It’s surprising how hard it is to leave our roots even when things start going bad. When we do move, it’s usually to find work. This again can be a trap. Sometimes, the places with work are in the rougher neighborhoods. Then we’re into playing the game of deciding just how far we want to commute everyday from our haven to work and back. And don’t think this is just a problem for the individuals. It’s a problem for local government as well. There’s the mayor and the elected officials with the responsibility of providing a safe place to live, a good place for business. If people are moving out of an area or refusing to move into it, this is bad for the local economy. There are less people paying taxes, so there’s less money to spend on anything important.