ka'ching

Some dumbass rear-ended me today. Apparently he was never taught to recognize that when the traffic light is turning from yellow to red and I have my brake lights on, it means that I am stopping. Oh, well. Another settlement collected by me from someone who realized that buying me off was cheaper than a hit on his insurance.

One thing puzzles me. LA is probably the most car-dependent city in the country. Yet, the drivers in LA are probably the crappiest drivers in the country. For people who regularly put in two hour commutes in addition to their one-block drive from their house to Starbucks, they are really aggressive and don't know how to follow traffic laws. Including the latest one, I've gotten into three accidents in my life (when I was 17, I backed into a woman's grocery cart). And two out of those three were in the last two years in LA.

LA also happens to be the most car-conscious country, and people here think nothing of dropping 100K on the latest automotive offering. Yet from a purely economic perspective, I would think that if I put that much into an investment, I would make sure that it maintains its value. Like bringing it in for regular service, installing a security system, and learning to drive properly so that I don't crash it into some poor law student's piece of crap car while a light is turning red on Sepulveda. Not only will I have to pay off this law student, but I will also then need to spend money to fix up the fancy German automobile I bought to make up for my small "insecurity".