Your humor escapes me
Maybe that’s the plan.
At least he said “in general”…as though there were some exceptions.
Why???
Quite a few pilots I know are Sports pilots that were previously PPL.
Just because they decided not to renew their medical doesn’t make then any more hazardous then having a PPL.
The level of certification, in my humble opinion, is irrelevant. 25 yrs ago when I recieved my PPL, I buzzed the beach off of Ft Lauderdale in a Beech M35, the very same plane I was working my instrument rating and complex time. Looking back, it was immature, irresponsible, stupid and not appropriate for a pilot. I could have killed myself, my longtime friend that I had grown up with and anyone along the shoreline in the flight path had I had an engine out. And it was that same day and last that I ever did anything like that again. What did it for me? On my second pass, an FAA inspector from the Miami Regional office was on the pier fishing with his son. The very same pier I just flew at about hundred feet or so screaming at about 130 knots or so. In short, He didnt pull my license. But I was unofficially suspended and got off with a very strong threat that if my name EVER came up as much as a paint scrape on a ramp, it would be the end. Needless to say, I have followed the regs by the book from then on. He did mention on my way out of his office with my head tucked deep in my ass…“you never make a second pass…its how I got your numbers.”
When I was in the Navy, many pilots that had quals “altitudes” higher than mine busted minimums, buzzed homes, beaches etc. It comes down to this…common sense, maturity and education. Again, just my opinion. We all have read of pilots holding certs as high as ATPLs doing these kind of things.
We agree on something, Allen!
Back in the day, a rite of passage for us junior birdmen out of TEB was flying under the George Washington Bridge.
OMG!! 
Years ago, in Arizona, I was with my BF who owned the Cherokee 235B and we were flying at 11,000 (I think) over the Grand Canyon. Then, we see this F/16 zoom below us, and swoop into the canyon, like it was the Death Star. I yelled, “Hey!! Can he DO that?!” The answer was “Well, no…but who is gonna stop him?!”.
Every once in awhile a blue moon happens as I agreed with the “front end” of cost factor that you posted earlier. 
Beechluvr did say it best. Level of certification doesn’t stop pilots from doing stupid things with the equipment they are rated for whether it be a jet jock, PPL, sports pilot or ultralight pilot.
They are still Private Pilots.
No current medical, they are sports pilots by the letter of the law.
I have a Commercial Pilot License with Instrument and Multi-Engine ratings. I hold a 3rd class medical and have not flown Multi-Engine for years.
What does my FAA license say?
What does my insurance company have me listed as?
Doesn’t matter what your license says as your FAA license never expires. You cannot conduct and you lose your PPL privileges without a current medical, for starters no more then one passenger and restricted horsepower of a plane.
Dunno about your insurance, but I have to report my medical status every year and in order for my insurance to be in full effect, I have to have a current BFR AND medical to operate as PPL.
If you do decide to exercise PPL privileges with an expired medical, just don’t get caught 
but until you get a current medical you can excercise sports pilot privileges as long as your medical wasn’t revoked.
You are what you are unless your license has been suspended or revoked.
What privileges you exercise is another matter.
Not quite sure why you think having an expired medical keeps you qualified as a PPL but what ever you say Frank.
No current medical, you are not a PPL by the letter of the law. What you were doesn’t matter. They go hand and hand and there is no getting around that unless you know something that I don’t kow.
You both are right. At least the way I understand the FARs…and please feel free to opine…in which case I dunno why I would say that as we have been labeled to be Type As… 
by some other member in another thread…We hold a PPL, but we are not medically current and havent had a BFR in two years or more. We are still PPs, we just cant exercise the priviledges of a PP, only that of a Sport Pilot. When ANYONE ever asks me what I am, I tell them I am a Private Pilot. Am I wrong for doing so? 
To be honest, I would answer the question the same way only because the non aviator John Q public person wouldn’t have a clue what sports pilot means.
Kinda like they don’t know what checking mags on a runup is (I barely know myself!) so I tell them I am checking the spark plugs to keep it simple.
But no matter what I was in the past, if I don’t have a current medical that wasn’t revoked as of today, I am not a PPL, just a sports pilot with previous PPL experience.
" Kinda like they don’t know what checking mags on a runup is (I barely know myself!) so I tell them I am checking the spark plugs to keep it simple. " Uhmm, for the last twenty five yrs…I’ve been telling people that too… 
You do realize Mr Frank Holbert will disagree with you concerning the above topic dont you.,…
And he would be right to disagree as magnetos are not spark plugs but my passenger doesn’t know or care 
just as the passenger wouldn’t care if I was operating as a PPL or SP. All they know is they are flying in a 2 seat plane and entrusting their safety in my hands.
I dunno’, Frank Holbert? 8)