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Parents

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Parents should pay for their children's car insurance because caring for your kids is part of the responsibility of being a parent. If you are helping your kid get a car and maintain it - and most parents are - then you should be responsible about covering society's potential costs for his or her driving mistakes.

The alternatives to paying for insurance seem pretty dire. One option is for the kid to lack insurance. But this is bad on several levels. First, it saddles everyone else with the costs of paying for a kid's accident; this is unfair. Second, it signals to a kid that he or she is invulnerable - ie., he won't have an accident, and so he can drive like a maniac. Third, it signals to a kid that the public good can be damned, and that the kid doesn't have to play by the rules.

The other alternative is for the kid to pay for the insurance. But this just saddles the kid with another expense. And thus the kid works more, rather than focusing on academics. Or the kid steals money. Or the kid drops insurance, and thus gets a bad mark for dropping insurance that will raise his rates in the future.

So parents, shoulder the responsibility and pick up the tab for insurance for a couple of years.

Learn more about this author, B. B. James.
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