721–730 of 1001 posts
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A key issue in the LA fires was bad management at all levels of government that could have prevented an order of magnitude of the damage (If procedures from the past were followed).
You’re a fire management expert? What did LA do wrong?
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Insurer of last resort == taxpayers bailing out people who can no longer afford to live in their multi-million dollar properties but refuse to sell and move.
TBF the best example of a program like this that currently exists is the National Flood Insurance Program which covers many sub-multi-million dollar homes and is billions of dollars in the hole.
Like we see in California, when the government sets a price ceiling, insurance companies just leave. Same in Florida. If the free market truly was allowed run normally, the insurance rates in Pacific Palisades or on the Florida coast would be so high that no one could afford to live there. Is that a bad thing? If someone was living in a house near where they tested missiles, we'd call them crazy. At what point can we…
American, living in area prone to natural disasters: "Is the WHOLE WORLD becoming uninsurable?" The answer is obviously "no" since there are other parts of the world that don't live on a hurricane highway nor build houses made from firewood in an area prone to wildfires.
It’s possible that solve the hurricane problems with proper building regulations and lower the risk of huge wildfires with controlled burning. But the US as always prefers to pretend that there’s nothing to be done when other parts of the world has figured it out. We have cyclones here similar to the hurricanes in the US and usually it just blows over some trees maybe causes a power outage. The absolute worst I have…
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How are you making this claim? Every time a hurricane hits Florida, there are photos of entire neighborhoods devastated by wind and storm surge. How many people were permanently displaced by Katrine? Etc. Maybe many of the homes weren't technically "destroyed", but each storm brings millions or billions in damage.
Hurricanes usually don't affect the structure of a house. They might damage the roof, parts of exterior cladding, perhaps windows, and the flooding which accompanies hurricanes destroys personal possessions, interior furnishing, electrical wiring, and appliances. In the US, manual labor is very expensive, home construction or repair is highly regulated and requires permits and multiple inspections from the local gove…
And certainly as it relates to insurance, the trend sure seems to be well on it's way towards "coastal Florida is insurable" (either the price goes up beyond the means of the residents, or the insurers leave the market). Something like 5% of the state is covered by Citizen's Property (the government insurer of last-resort). Some coastal areas are ~10%. I have to imagine it won't be long before it's cheaper to pay people to move elsewhere than rebuild where they are.
I live in North Texas, and I see a similar pattern in home and car insurance as well. Our main local threat is hail. Well, and the tornadoes, but while very destructive, tornadoes create fairly geographically limited damage. Hail can cover whole cities at a time. Car insurance became quite expensive. My premium is about $2,200 / 6mo (no accidents, no speeding, no claims in about 10 years) for two cars and two drivers…
In my NYC neighborhood, we seem to be going through a whole slew of businesses closing shop within the last year and change. One obvious reason is rent hikes. But as one of my favorite local bars was closing, one of the staff mentioned that insurance was really starting to kill them. We don't live in a flood-prone part of NYC, so I'm curious: is insurance for retail space really going up dramatically across the board…
https://capitaloneshopping.com/research/shoplifting-statisti...
https://www.thecity.nyc/2024/02/21/shoplifting-surge-nyc-sma...
https://nypost.com/2024/05/20/opinion/nyc-crime-wave-continu...
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Public insurance. For housing, healthcare, maybe even cars (since the coprorate political complex insists that we HAVE to drive everywhere). At some point, we have to accept that the middlemen are siphoning value, not providing any. Vanguard it and let elected admins set the codes.
As a British citizen by birth, I'm amused by the idea that Americans may get National Insurance for houses before they do for healthcare.
We get what we allow or deserve here in the US. Citizens United led to our current awful outcome.
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Less about the question (that has been asked so much now its tiring) but more on how when people do ask it, they always ask in such a negative way. Its not why are so many homes built out of timber/wood but rather why are they built out of sticks?
It draws a compelling portrait in people's minds. Everybody knows how easily sticks burn.