The app for independent voices
Really enjoyed the range of topics in this discussion. Annie brings a lot of info. May I add a bit about auto insurance & repair costs?
Dunno if people got worse at driving during pandemic. Remember many insurers rebating some premium $ because miles driven dropped dramatically for a few months? So accidents declined for awhile. I get your point about anger/acting out behind the wheel but that conflates with other recent phenomena like cell phone use/texting, overall stress level in society rising, etc.
Dunno about age as a factor (biased cuz I have a LOT of that). To geezers, it seems like all those younguns on the road are looking at their phones too much. You KNOW if I'm talking to you!
Next let's look at the tight labor market in auto & body repair. Plus the huge increase in prices of auto parts, partly a supply chain disruption issue but one reason we feel like there's corporate greed is that prices are sticky - once raised due to supply chain, prices aren't reduced when the chain smooths out: "people will pay the higher price, so why roll it back? Let's make up for the reduced profits we briefly had to deal with."
Please check out this article for good overview: