Only good if you die soon

I'm no financial genius, by any means, but I don't like the idea of term life insurance. I mean, unless I have completely misunderstood what term life insurance means and how it works, if you don't die by the time the term runs out - you've just thrown away the money. With whole life insurance, somebody is going to get something when I croak, no matter if that's latter on today, or sometime 50 years from now. Term is cheaper, but - most people never collect, so it *should* be cheaper. But, hey, what do I know?