Richardcyoung.com

The Online Home of Author and Investor, Dick Young

  • Home
  • How We Are Different
  • About Us
    • Foundation Principles
    • Contributors
  • Investing
    • You’ve Read The Last Issue of Intelligence Report, Now What?
  • Your Survival Guy
  • The Great Reset
  • COVID-19
  • My Rifles
  • Dividends and Compounding
  • Your Security
  • The Swiss Way
  • Dick Young
  • Debbie Young
  • Key West
  • Paris
  • Dick’s R&B Top 100
  • Liberty & Freedom Map
  • Bank Credit & Money
  • Your Survival Guy’s Super States
  • NNT & Cholesterol
  • Work to Make Money/Invest to Save Money
  • Your Health
  • Ron Paul
  • US Treasury Yield Curve: My Favorite Investor Tool

Natural Disasters or Imprudent, Shortsighted Human Decisions?

September 20, 2017 By Debbie Young

Amongst our most influential citizens, especially those living in the Boston-New York-Washington corridor, there is one thing they have in common: a house in Florida, writes Holman Jenkins, Jr. in the WSJ. In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma, and the now threatening Hurricane Maria, here is Mr. Jenkins on the lack of proper risk pricing through insurance.

This problem many of us once believed could be solved through sensible reform of the federal flood-insurance program plus the development of a global reinsurance industry, some of it based on promising so-called catastrophe bonds.

Now we wonder if it can even be ameliorated. Anyone whose labors take him among America’s distinguished elder statesmen, especially those in the Boston-New York-Washington corridor, discovers that our most influential citizens all have one thing in common: a house in Florida. An unfortunate truth is that the value of their Florida coastal property would plummet if they were made to bear the cost of their life-style choices. A lot of ritzy communities would shrink drastically.

Sun and fun would still attract visitors, but property owners and businesses would face a new set of incentives. Either build a lot sturdier and higher up. Or build cheap and disposable, and expect to shoulder the cost of totally rebuilding every decade or two. Faced with skyrocketing insurance rates, entire communities would have to dissolve themselves or tax their residents heavily to invest in damage-mitigation measures.

From law professors Omri Ben-Shahar and Kyle Logue, in the Stanford Law Review, last year: “We call weather-related catastrophes ‘natural disasters,’ but the losses due to severe weather are the result of a combination of natural forces and often imprudent, shortsighted human decisions induced . . . by questionable government policies.”

Read more from Holman Jenkins here.

If you’re willing to fight for Main Street America, click here to sign up for the Richardcyoung.com free weekly email.

Related Posts

  • VIDEO: Natural Cancer Cure
  • Is Hillary Human?
  • Afghan Disasters: A History
  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Debbie Young
Debbie, editor-in-chief of Richardcyoung.com, has been associate editor of Dick Young’s investment strategy reports for over three decades. When not in Key West, Debbie spends her free time researching and writing in and about Paris and Burgundy, France, cooking on her AGA Cooker, driving her Porsche Boxter S through Vermont and Maine, and practicing yoga.
Latest posts by Debbie Young (see all)
  • How to Fight Wokism Idiocy - January 30, 2023
  • Don’t Believe ’em. They’re Coming for Your Gas Stove - January 27, 2023
  • The Power of Words - January 26, 2023

Dick Young’s Must Reads

  • Joel Salatin and Alfie Oakes, America’s Food Kings
  • America’s Silent Army with 423M Guns
  • The Butterfly Effect and Chaotic Markets
  • Why Some Kids Won’t Go Back to School, Ever
  • The Common Ground of Democracy is Sinking Beneath Americans’ Feet
  • A NEW CONTRACT WITH AMERICA: Rick Scott Finally Gives the GOP Something to Run On
  • Yes! Money Can Bring You Happiness
  • Democracy: The Most Dangerous and Insidious Effect of Majority Rule.
  • DONBAS: Russian Tanks Face Gauntlet of Death from Javelin Wielding Ukrainians
  • Robo-Advisors: When You Have a Lot More to Lose than Money

Our Most Popular Posts

  • Pfizer CEO Terrified of Real Questions About His Vaccines
  • Give Me Clean, Efficient Gas
  • America's Super States and Stocks that Respect YOU
  • How the Biden Administration Is Destroying Our Energy Infrastructure
  • The Rich Seek More from Bank Accounts
  • Artificial Intelligence Is Coming, But It's Not Quite There
  • Is Kevin McCarthy’s GOP Willing to Do What It Takes on Debt?
  • The Sound of Silence
  • Forty Years Ago, Jogging a Mile a Day and Still Going
  • Strengthen Your Defenses Against Stroke

Disclosure

RSS Youngresearch.com

  • Warren Miller: If You Don’t Do It This Year, You’ll Be…
  • Are the Realists Winning the Debate over the Future of EVs?
  • CATO: Global Freedom Is in Sharp Decline
  • Biden Administration Destroying Retiree Fiduciary Protections
  • 4 Life Changing Words for Your Survival Guy: “You Should Try This”
  • Suddenly, Holding Cash Looks Good Again to Many
  • Anti-Carbon Crusaders in Davos Talk ESG and OPM
  • Is Passive Investing Already Passé?
  • Welcome to Hotel California, Where You Can Never Leave
  • What You’re Telling Me Matters

RSS Yoursurvivalguy.com

  • Warren Miller: If You Don’t Do It This Year, You’ll Be…
  • CATO: Global Freedom Is in Sharp Decline
  • TIME FOR A GONDOLA? Little Cottonwood Canyon Jammed with Traffic
  • Biden Administration Destroying Retiree Fiduciary Protections
  • 4 Life Changing Words for Your Survival Guy: “You Should Try This”
  • Anti-Carbon Crusaders in Davos Talk ESG and OPM
  • Welcome to Hotel California, Where You Can Never Leave
  • What You’re Telling Me Matters
  • The Rich Seek More from Bank Accounts
  • California’s Wealth Tax Will Drive Out Remaining Rich Residents

How to Fight Wokism Idiocy

Despite Western Aid the Russians Are Slowly Taking Ukraine’s Territory

Warren Miller: If You Don’t Do It This Year, You’ll Be…

The Man Who Tried to Prevent the Challenger Space Shuttle Disaster

Ukraine Front Lines Increasingly Bloody

Is Diesel Fuel About to Become Even More Expensive?

Copyright © 2023 | Terms & Conditions | About Us | Dick Young | Archives