Why is insurance expensive? Not a simple question or answer, but here is an example. (I don't work in auto insurance specifically, but I do work in insurance and primarily in loss control/prevention, etc. so this is a particular field of knowledge for me in everyday life...)
Let's say you pay out $500 every six months for your auto insurance. That is $1,000 per year. A part of that goes to paying salaries for the insurance company employees (and most of us make less than school teachers unless you are very high up!), part of it goes to paying for utilities and building expenses, etc. On and on it goes. Let's say you've been with the company for ten years. $1,000 per year for ten years means you've paid them a grand total of $10,000.
Now, let's say you are in an accident and there are injuries. The insurance company pays out $12,000 on that new car that you just totalled, and then they also pay out $18,000 in total medical expenses. That is a grand total of $30,000 in payments.
Now, take that $10,000 you have given them over the past ten years, and divide it by the $30,000 they just had to spend for a single event, and they have lost $3 for every $1 you gave them. Who is being nice then?
Make no mistake, yes, insurance is big business and the companies are in it to make money, but it is also an expensive business and the total risk involved is very high. Insurance is one of the most tightly regulated industries in America, with literally dozens upon dozens upon dozens of laws and regulations in force to keep insurance companies from overcharging customers, to keep them solvent (meaning we have enough money to pay potential claims in the case of losses), to prevent fraud, etc. You name it, there is probably a law for it and the companies are reviewed on a very regular basis and watched like hawks by state and federal regulators. The process required for an insurance company to raise rates is incredibly difficult and detailed and the amount of data required to present to state regulators in order to get them to agree to an increase is unbelievable if you've never been a part of it. The amount of "extra" profit above expenses that is allowed is not as big as you might think. And the only reason an insurance company can make a profit is if there are no catastrophic losses. Natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina can wipe out ten years worth of profits for an insurance company or even threaten to cause bankrupcies, etc.
So if the data proves that people with poor credit tend to cost insurance companies more money in claims payments, then they have a right to charge those people more money within reason. It is NOT the same as shopping at a store where every customer gets the same item and it costs the wholesaler the same amount per item to make what they are selling. Insurance is different for every person. Deductables are different. Coverage amounts are different. Potential risk is different. You can't charge the same amount to every person because every person is getting a different item. It isn't like buying a box of cereal off the shelf, or even a car, where every one is the same and the customer just has to grab it and pay for it. Therefore you cannot possibly price it as such. There are people who spend their entire careers studying data and reports and doing very complex mathematical calculations in order to determine fair and equitable rates for insurance (of all types) and then the state regulators have to agree to them. It isn't rocket science, but it is pretty darn close. They don't just draw numbers out of thin air.
That being said, do I still get mad when my insurance rate goes up? Darn tootin'.
And, just for the record, speeding is breaking the law and is a risky behavior, and if you don't break the law by speeding you won't get tickets and your insurance rates won't go up because of it... the truth hurts sometimes.
I think it has more to do with screwing over a group of people who have little choice. Kind of like the over-priced grocery stores in the ghetto. They're poor, they can't do anything about it, they got 'em bent over. 
