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Houston is experiencing its third ‘500-year’ flood in 3 years

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Houston is experiencing its third ‘500-year’ flood in 3 years

#131

Post by Mz »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #130
Mz wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, that isn't why. I worked in insurance. Not homeowners insurance, but I had a certificate and processed claims. The reason is that most human settlements occur in flood plains because we cannot live without water. We drink it. We bath in it. We irrigate crops with it. Flood plains have fertile soil. We use rivers and oceans for essential cargo transit. Insurance is about risk management. It is a form of betting. A…

That's a fool's bet to say "I will pay you X amount of money if it floods" when it is guaranteed to flood sooner or later. That amounts to charity, not insurance. A statement with profound implications in other areas of insurance, notably health insurance. You're insuring against expensive losses that will almost certainly happen at some point... which suggests that traditional insurance isn't the right framework for…

I have said that repeatedly on HN. Obamacare is a terrible idea and we need another solution.

Re: Houston is experiencing its third ‘500-year’ flood in 3 years

#132

Post by stevenwoo »

xexers wrote: post #81

Anyone notice the comments for this article on WP? There appears to be a poster called "The burning bush" who is commenting with lengthy comments about every 6 minutes. All of the the comments from that user are sceptical of man made climate change. Washington post does not appear to let you sort by anything other than "newest"... which means that this commenter's posts are always the top comment. That's concerning!

Every comments section I've seen for newspaper articles even in supposedly blue urban areas contain an outsize proportion of conservative trolls. It's possibly worse than youtube comments.

Re: Houston is experiencing its third ‘500-year’ flood in 3 years

#134

Post by tuna-piano »

MarkMc wrote: post #95

The problem is that the person who judges the probability at 1-in-500 doesn't have any skin in the game. The judgement of the US meteorological office affects where people can build houses and how much they pay for government insurance. Homeowners have a strong financial interest in underestimating the probability of a severe flood, so there is likely subtle political pressure applied to the met office assessments. F…

And the reinsurance folks seem to say that there is absolutely no evidence that there has been an uptick in these big disastrous storms. People are constantly thinking of global warming, so when they see a storm, they say "Aha! Global Warming!". Of course there have always been hurricanes, and human perception/remembering is not a replacement for statistics and math.

From Warren Buffet (One of the largest insurers of this type in the world) "...climate change had not up until then [2016] produced more frequent nor more costly hurricanes nor other weather-related events covered by insurance.""

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/27/warren-buffett-global-warmin...

Re: Houston is experiencing its third ‘500-year’ flood in 3 years

#135

Post by HillaryBriss »

Retric wrote: post #115
Mz wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, that isn't why. I worked in insurance. Not homeowners insurance, but I had a certificate and processed claims. The reason is that most human settlements occur in flood plains because we cannot live without water. We drink it. We bath in it. We irrigate crops with it. Flood plains have fertile soil. We use rivers and oceans for essential cargo transit. Insurance is about risk management. It is a form of betting. A…

That's not the problem. Private insurance does not offer flood insurance because A) it tends to all be due at the same time requiring a very large fund. B) It also promotes people living in flood prone areas. C) It's very hard to asses risks. Combined and you end up with bankrupt insurance companies. The industry also feels B makes selling flood insurance a bad idea. That said, there are Private policies you can buy…

> it tends to all be due at the same time requiring a very large fund.

i don't quite see that.

if the flood insurer covered a broad variety of geographically dispersed areas across North America, or even just the US, would that be true?

Re: Houston is experiencing its third ‘500-year’ flood in 3 years

#136

Post by HillaryBriss »

Mz wrote: post #131
CamperBob2 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a fool's bet to say "I will pay you X amount of money if it floods" when it is guaranteed to flood sooner or later. That amounts to charity, not insurance. A statement with profound implications in other areas of insurance, notably health insurance. You're insuring against expensive losses that will almost certainly happen at some point... which suggests that traditional insurance isn't the right framework for…

I have said that repeatedly on HN. Obamacare is a terrible idea and we need another solution.

well. ok. but, i don't see placing the blame on Obamacare. i mean that was not the origin of the concept of health insurance.

Re: Houston is experiencing its third ‘500-year’ flood in 3 years

#137

Post by stale2002 »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #130
Mz wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, that isn't why. I worked in insurance. Not homeowners insurance, but I had a certificate and processed claims. The reason is that most human settlements occur in flood plains because we cannot live without water. We drink it. We bath in it. We irrigate crops with it. Flood plains have fertile soil. We use rivers and oceans for essential cargo transit. Insurance is about risk management. It is a form of betting. A…

That's a fool's bet to say "I will pay you X amount of money if it floods" when it is guaranteed to flood sooner or later. That amounts to charity, not insurance. A statement with profound implications in other areas of insurance, notably health insurance. You're insuring against expensive losses that will almost certainly happen at some point... which suggests that traditional insurance isn't the right framework for…

Huh? Why?

Just charge more money for your insurance. Boom! Profitable business.

Re: Houston is experiencing its third ‘500-year’ flood in 3 years

#138

Post by gnaritas »

Mz wrote: post #131
CamperBob2 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a fool's bet to say "I will pay you X amount of money if it floods" when it is guaranteed to flood sooner or later. That amounts to charity, not insurance. A statement with profound implications in other areas of insurance, notably health insurance. You're insuring against expensive losses that will almost certainly happen at some point... which suggests that traditional insurance isn't the right framework for…

I have said that repeatedly on HN. Obamacare is a terrible idea and we need another solution.

Obamacare is not a terrible idea, it's a transitional idea as we're already doing this with insurance; it's an evolution of the system in the right direction, it's not a final solution. Add a national exchange, offer a public option, bam medicade for all.

Re: Houston is experiencing its third ‘500-year’ flood in 3 years

#139

Post by HillaryBriss »

matt4077 wrote: post #122
cat199 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey we've got a legal mandate to fund insurers now with our 'public private partnership' healthcare system.. pick this up as your issue and you might have a lucrative career in lobbying lined up..

"Now"... The National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 established the government-backed flood insurance scheme. It has Ronald Reagan's signature. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Flood_Insurance_Act_o... The idea was and is twofold: first, it was seen as the only possibility to actually provide such insurance because insurance companies (even together) lack the financial strength to be able to insure risks that are…

> insurance companies (even together) lack the financial strength

high deductible policies and reinsurance are other tools that can be used to help with this problem

Re: Houston is experiencing its third ‘500-year’ flood in 3 years

#140

Post by Mz »

gnaritas wrote: post #138
Mz wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have said that repeatedly on HN. Obamacare is a terrible idea and we need another solution.

Obamacare is not a terrible idea, it's a transitional idea as we're already doing this with insurance; it's an evolution of the system in the right direction, it's not a final solution. Add a national exchange, offer a public option, bam medicade for all.

bam medicade for all.

That is called single payer, government provided coverage. I would support that.

That is not remotely what Obamacare does. Obamacare requires private insurance to cover people with pre-existing conditions and it requires everyone to buy private insurance. It is busted as all fuck and I would like to see it go die in a fire.

I am aware what we were doing before Obamacare sucks and we need a real solution and to not simply go back to that. But this is not a real solution.

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