capitalism *is* fun :-)

I was reading the usual stuff this weekend (Bloomberg and a few more sites) and 2 things got my attention. One is about people’s greed and ingenious ways of making money, and the other is a good example of how to lower a car’s fuel usage, at the expense of innocent lives.

A new business in town will allow you to sell your life insurance to an "investor" in case there is nobody left to cash in your policy once you die. You get a nice amount of money in exchange, and they will continue to pay the premiums for you. Wonderful idea indeed. I wonder how long it will take until obscure little companies running this business, will hire the mob or other dubious characters, to help the person cash in the policy, a bit "sooner".
Capitalism is sick

On another article, the environmentalists started their usual protest, against a new European Union directive, which will require all cars to drive with their headlights on, all the time. According to the environmentalist, this will increase fuel usage by 5%. That is if you are driving a golf-cart. Has any of those green geniuses thought of actually experimenting this, since almost all cars have a trip computer which shows you your average fuel consumption?
Let’s do some math. A crappy little car engine has at least 50Kw of power. That is 50.000 watts. Turning the headlight on, uses at most, 200 watts. That is 0.4% … That’s 12.5 times less then what they claim.
I suggest that the EU should ban the usage of headlights at night. This will allow car manufacturers to lower the production costs since headlights won’t be needed, cars will get cheaper, and the amount you save, can be used to offset the high costs of gas. I am all in, for the environment’s sake.