From sokol at jhu.edu Wed Sep 22 10:15:32 1999
Car insurance rates in predminantly "black" zip code areas
can be several times higher than in the burbs, for example
$3-4 thousand a year versus $800-$900 a year. This is
institutional racism not merely market, because insurance
is essentially about socializing (externalizing) of certain
costs and that necessaruly involves social distinctions
how those cost are or are not socialized, i.e. the costs
of blacks are externalized on other blacks but not whites.
I think just about everyone would agree with you -- except the
insurance industry. . . .
>>>>
This isn't just a car thing. It's also a credit thing, an access to retail and public services thing, etc. In other words, a race thing. You can't indict the auto- economy by imputing an idealized world to public transit.
mbs