[OT] All home owners to pay for disasters in future fund.

I just about had a stroke that ended my thanksgiving weekend.
On the 6pm news, was a report on how insurance companies no longer are going to underwrite high risk homes.
So, a team of people who really do mean well, are putting a bill together being backed by senators that will have all home owners in the country share the risk of disasters.
Ohh, it sounded so lovely, all home owners will now share in the risk, not just the poor souls living on the edge of the cliffs.
All home owners will pay into a national disaster risk fund.
Hum, national home owners insurance, just what we need ;-)

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Don't you just love well intentioned people? They don't know the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
There are so many things I'd like to say right now, that are so very politically incorrect and calloused but I'll just say this: Welcome to the United Socialist States.
Randy www.vernarockets.com

WE already do that! All the insurance companies use the excuse of a hurricane in Florida or where ever it happened to hit to raise my rates in the midwest every dang time it comes around for annual renewal. This is NOTHING NEW! However with the larger homes being built as shown on 60 minutes tonight if they get hey (oh poor them) their 13,000 sq ft home is gonna cost you and me and the three little pigs a bundle. Of course this will not have to be paid into by our Senators and Congressmen oh no they will continue to write themselves and exemption to this like everything else and continue to raise their incomes for life on our quarter.
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Well yes and no.
we can chose not to insure, that would be silly, but still a choice if you own your home and the bank does not.
you can bet alot that many in the country in poorer rural areas have no insurance of any kind today.
or we can chose to underinsure, insure at replacement rebuild cost only, or at 170% over.
with national risk management, homeowners (I assume) would be forced to pay into the fund.
But I would guess that for this to be acepted, a limit of yearly income would need to be a "bar" that would determine if you can pay into the fund or not.

writes:
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Well, yes, but...
Recent premium inflation is more a result of the stock market than the disaster claims.

AlMax wrote:
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Why do these people always miss the obvious solution? Instead of starting up a whole new, inefficient bureaucracy, all they have to do is require the insurance companies to do their freaking job -- insure people. Make it a law that they can't weasel out of insuring those who need it most. The insurance companies are always trying to get out of insuring those who need it -- they only want your money if there's virtually no chance they'll ever have to give you anything for it.
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The whole point of insurance is to share the risk. s

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It's called "adverse selection."
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I think you meant :-(
I remember when I used to work for a health care company, someone had a bumper sticker that read something like:
National Health Insurance the efficiency of the Post Office the compassion of the IRS at Pentagon prices
Disaster relief ought to be a one-shot benefit. You choose to rebuild your house in hurricane alley, on the mud-slopes of the PRK, on a major fault line, below sea level next to a large river, or next to a tornado causing trailer park, and you're entitled to disaster aid exactly ONCE. Choose to rebuild in the disaster area, and you're on your own.

Bob Kaplow wrote:
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Yes, but many People find it difficult to relocate because the real estate that they own, is now a disaster area, not really a seller's market.

kaplow snipped-for-privacy@encompasserve.org.mars says...
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I'm with Bob. Why should I subsidize your condo at the beach?
Do people who build in hazardous areas pay rates that are high enough relative to the risk of property damage? I bet not.
Saw a hurricane survivor the other night on the news who was demanding to know "who was gonna pay her bills?". Left me speechless. I "owe" this individual something?
What I want to know is this: If a tornado blows my house down is FEMA gonna put me up for months in a hotel, give me spending money, etc. etc. etc.? Once again, I bet not.

On Mon, 28 Nov 2005 15:03:05 -0500, Tweak
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Oh yeah, that reminds me...
I'm going to need some cash from you ol' buddy to help with the insanely high heating bills this winter, and also, to offset the cost of clearing the lake effect snow off my driveway so I can get out [1]...
It's not *my* fault for living here!
<vbg>
Tod "Two 4wd's and an Escort" Hilty
[1] Actually, we now have 14 cords of wood put up for this heating season, and "Cujo" the snowblower has new auger bearings, belts, and nitrous injection <g>...

snipped-for-privacy@weinerboy.org says...
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14 cords? 14?
I do have 3 locusts, 2.5 oaks (one of which is in the pond, which will require some ingenuity to reclaim), and some other trash wood about to cut, but they are all waiting on me.
14?!?

On Mon, 28 Nov 2005 16:20:09 -0500, Tweak
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Yep. That's why I didn't get out flying that much this summer. I was married to my wife the logsplitter, and my mistresses the chainsaws!
<g>
We had two 100+ year old sugar maples taken down back in June. Didn't want to, but they had a pretty nasty fungal infection that, IMHO (and the tree guy's), made them structurally unstable. These things were about 20 feet or so from my house; both easily over 90 feet high. The stump of one was about 4.5 feet in diameter, and the other was over 5 feet in diameter. Great fun to split too... ;)
Almost 7 cords came from those. I will keep anything 2 inches in diameter or larger, and chip the rest.
In addition, several neighbors had many trees, and many large branches come down. Knowing that it would save them a boatload of money, they call "Tod the wood guy" to come cut up, split, and haul out the wood. Around here, if you do that portion of the job yourself (or find some other wood scrounging creature such as myself). you can cut almost 75% off the typical bill if the tree needs to be dropped. If it's already on the ground due to Mother Nature, well, that's a given...
So I've got Maple, Cherry, Walnut, Elm, Oak, and Hickory...
What's your flavor?
<vbg>
tah

snipped-for-privacy@weinerboy.org wrote:
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Do you do black walnut??? Got a 50 footer in the backyard just ready to fall on the house. People tell me I could sell this tree but....
Ted Novak TRA#5512 IEAS#75

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Oh yeah Ted, definitely track down a sawmill and see what they would give you for it. If it's straight, reasonably knot and hazard free, you might be surprised how much they will *pay* you to take it down.
Great for furniture, and superior for gunstocks.
Get a couple of opinions too. You'd be surprised at the variance.
Around here, walnut and cherry command some big prices per board foot. We can't give oak, or maple away... too many trees. The walnut and cherry I cut up for firewood was essentially not "right" for lumber.
tah

snipped-for-privacy@weinerboy.org wrote:
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Wow. How do you even cut up something that size?
Last winter when a big storm knocked over a huge eucalyptus out here, I heard it cost the owner several thousand dollars just to get it cut up and hauled off. That was in addition to the damage it caused falling onto a power line and a lot full of boats.
h

On 28 Nov 2005 18:09:22 -0800, " snipped-for-privacy@aol.com"
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Well, for the big stuff, I use the "mother of all chainsaws", a 1950 Homelite with a 42" bar. This is a "mans" chainsaw, from back when they made them of all metal, and they had no mufflers. It uses a big-toothed logging chain, not the namby-pamby stuff you get nowadays.
Freaking weighs a ton....
1:25 mix of straight SAE30 oil...
Ear protection is mandatory!
<vbg>
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That I wouldn't doubt. It's tough work. But for a guy like me, who sits on his butt all day in front of a tube, the excersize is probably saving my life...
<vbg>
tah

On Tue, 29 Nov 2005 02:58:56 GMT, snipped-for-privacy@weinerboy.org wrote:
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That's almost cheating. You CAN work up those big trunks with a 21" or so chain saw, but it is a challange that is often not worth the effort. When cutting firewood you want to a) fill the truck as much as you can before the wood cutter expires, or b) fill the truck in the least amount af time.
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Maybe so, But it often feels like it's killing me.
Alan
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You're right Alan, I've done some pretty big trunk sections with an 18" bar. A friend gave me the old Homelite. It was part of a "lot" of farm equipment he bought at an auction. At first I didn't think it would run, but after cleaning the gas tank and carb out, adding fresh gas (thank God the mix was embossed on the tank, or I never would've known) it fired right up. At first, I thought it had exploded, the durn thing was so loud. I have no idea what the displacement of the motor is, but it looks like it could easily power a decent sized motorcycle. It's also big enough that when you pull start it, and it doesn't fire on the downstroke, but "ricochets", it'll damn near pull your shoulder out of joint... <g>
It cuts logs, though, like a hot knife through butter. The type of wood doesn't even matter. It'll go through oak just as fast as it'll go through poplar!
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Oh yeah! There have been quite a few Monday mornings, after weekend of wood cutting, in which I've needed a wheelchair just to get around!
<vbg>
I'm still not done for this season either. I've got two maple logs, probably 18" or so in diameter, and about 20 feet long to do, plus a very large trunk section of a sasafrass tree!
tah

snipped-for-privacy@weinerboy.org says...
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Makes my 60s "little 24 inch bar Homelite" sound like a tinker toy. That's ok, though, as I wear out before that thing even gets warm.
As to the mix, it doesn't matter. Gas with plenty of oil. My dad put used motor oil in it when he used it. If it fouls the plug, you used too much oil. If it locks up, you didn't use enough oil...so use plenty of oil.