I have two youthful drivers in my household that are costing me a lot of auto insurance premium. I would like to have a national youthful driver fund established to help offset my cost. Do you think these two fine FL congressmen will enter a bill to help me? What, policyholders without youthful drivers shouldn’t pay more premium to help cover my risks?
the bottom line is those people who have chosen to live in(or move to)a high risk area want to be subsidized by people who don\’t have the same exposure.
they should pay their own way, and not expect some little old lady in Utah to help pick up the tab for them.
\”the bottom line is those people who have chosen to live in(or move to)a high risk area want to be subsidized by people who don\’t have the same exposure.\”
bob-
When you say it like this it sounds like you mean EVERYONE. Is that what you mean? Or, do you mean just the people who like to freeload off others? I don\’t think anyone should have to pay for anyone else unless they choose to (donations to charity, etc.). It\’s kind of a shame that we have the Earned Income Credit and we have to pay higher prices as consumers due to shoplifters. Why should I have to pay more taxes so they can give the money to someone else? No, it isn\’t fair. But, not all disaster prone area residents want to be subsidized by others. I just wanted to clarify.
Fl Resident,
We know not all are looking for handouts. I think the real story is how our wonderful politicians (and I do mean in all parts of the country) pander to those that don\’t understand the cause and effect of these \”great\” solutions. The voting populous (apparently) wants to believe that there is some great money generating machine out there that can pay for these \”solutions\” when in reality it is you and me.
I just don\’t understand everyone\’s anger towards people who live in Hurricane prone areas?????? I really would like to know where all of these people live because apparently they never experience natural disasters. And if you are all so smart for discovering this weather free utopian society, why are you not sharing?
Courtney,
I live in Ohio. Yes we have some natural disasters but the last time I checked there is no legislation being pushed for Tornado or hail relief. As I stated earlier, I would rather have some help on my auto insurance because of those darn kids. Yes I wanted to have them, but it sure would be nice to have you and my other friends out help me with the premium.
Youthful Driver – I still think your comments are assinine. Because I have this feeling if the situation were reversed and those of us living in the midwest (including myself) started getting hammered with tornado after tornado, you and I would be asking for the same kind of help. If you look at the history of insurance and why it was created, I think these people have every right to ask for more assistance. Personally, I think we should tax people who have kids and put that money towards hurricaine relief. (or stop giving so many tax breaks to people with dependents) how about that??
Courtney, it is not anger (Well, maybe it is anger towards the politicians, but not the residents). It is frustration that some people do not want to accept the financial responsibility of their decision about where to live.
As to where we live, I live in Tennessee and we have had our share of tornadoes and floods. That is factored into our insurance rates. All we are asking is that the people in high risk areas accept the financial responsibility associated with their decision.
Courtney,
Try the mid-west, northeast, and anywhere that is not below sea level and more than 1 mile from the shore. I live in NY. We had 12 feet of snow in 3 days here, are we asking for a hand out? No, we chose to live here so we deal with the responsibilities of our decision. You chose to enjoy the weather and the beach while we were shoveling snow, now don\’t try to have us help you because you were unprepared to deal with your choice. If you want to enjoy 12 months of warm weather don\’t expect those of us who have 3 good months of weather to bail you out. It\’s all a trade off, you can\’t just pick the good times and whine when things turn bad. Insure yourself properly and hope that most of your neighbors do also. After your next huricane season when your state fund is bankrupt and your assessment is in the thousands then you can ask again why the rest of us don\’t want to finance your life style.
Ditto YD,
I live in Missouri and there is no such thing as a weather-free utopia. We get racked with hail, wind, & tornados every year. We live with it, and pay for it ourselves. Several communities in our fair state have been virtually wiped out in the last couple of years but I didn\’t see any Floridiotians offer money or tromp up here to help out. My inlaws live in Fort Myers and think its terrible we don\’t bail them out every year. I hope the Senate gives the same cool reception to a national fund as the national insurance commissioners did. I\’ve already told my senators and representative their job is in jeporady if they warm up to it.
The FL state legislature has lowered rates by agreeing to backstop the insurance companies in case of catastrophe. Now (and Courtney, this is where the anger comes in) the US Senators from FL are trying to get the rest of the country to cover the rear ends of the FL legislature, and be there to bail out the state if there is a catastrophe. So you have the residents as mentioned earlier not wanting to take responsibility for their decision, and now you have the FL legislature, through their senators, trying to eliminate their responsiblity should a catastrophe occur.
wiped out by tornadoes and you dont get any help? you are a moron. every area hit with tornadoes gets declared a disaster area. just what do you think declaring a something a disaster area means? it means you\’re raping the rest of the country\’s tax dollars to rebuild your trailer parks and deep fat fried restaurants so your cholsterol choked 300 lbs. bodies can get back on your over stressed feet.
Do you just hate children in general or are you just upset because you don\’t have any and don\’t get the $$$/tax credits that people with them get (and probably shouldn\’t).
Individuals that choose to have kids should pay for expenses incurred by their choose to have them. People who choose to live in Hurricane/wind prone areas should have to pay for the expenses incurred for choosing to live where they do.
Plan-and-simple. People need to be responsible for themselves and their families and not expect everyone else to alway help them out period.
What part of National do you people not understand? I did not realize that Florida was a nation and that this bill was to only provide funds to the people who live there.
National? Yeah right. If you think that this country is made up of just the gulf coast and southeastern states then this would be a national benefit, but it\’s not and the rest of us do not want to pay for your risk. End of story.
All of you must be from the \”me\” generation. What is wrong with helping out a neighbor?? Do we just care about ourselves? The national disaster fund would be for the entire nation. Floors, winter storms, tornado, mudslides, earthquake etc. What is wrong with you people? You should all be ashamed of yourselves. I am sure there are people in all parts of the country who have suffered one disaster or another and a lot of them didn\’t \”choose\” to live there. They were born there and have no means of leaving. I suppose all of you had and have a choice where you live. I am sure all of you could pack up tomorrow and move to parts unknown. I think some of you people better grown up and realize we have a problem here. Not just in Fl., but SC, NC, VA, MD, DE, New England, NY, NJ and any coastal state. If they all moved inland, we would have major crowding and a shortage of jobs. Get real people. I hate paying my taxes too. I hate paying for the benefits of poor but last I heard, we are one nation under GOD. Don\’t you think it is time to act that way???
I appreciate how you put it. MY anger comes from the childish remarks made by others about how unfair it is that these people are asking for help. I just think that if the situation were reversed, people like youthful drivers would be making similar requests. Let\’s not be catty, let\’s be realistic.
Me Generation, We care about other people. However, and this is the key…. we want to decide who we help and what causes we support financially, and do not want the government spending our money for us. I personally would rather make the decision to contribute to a non profit organization that helps in various times of needs from natural disasters to abuse to medical research etc as opposed to having the government tell me that I have to subsidize someone in a high risk area rebuild their house.
Also part of my definition of the me generation is someone who does not want to accept responsibility for their actions, and always look to someone else to blame, or in this case, expects someone else to bail them out of their situation.
And I personally don\’t care about contributing more of my income to people because….well…just because i don\’t. But, i do respect what Andrew said. (i\’m willing to take crap for what i\’m about to say, but call me an idealist). it saddens me to see all of these responses to people who are just trying to do what we\’re all trying to do….lead a good life, work hard and have nice stuff. and quite frankly i want people living in florida, louisiana, etc… because living in nebraska, it would make it really hard for me to buy goods shipped in from around the world without major port cities.
sorry, i was all over the place on my last one. here\’s what i meant to say….
i understand what andrew is saying and i see why he is saying it. me, i don\’t care…if i need to pay more (with some limitation) to help others, i don\’t mind.
since hurricaine katrina i have heard people say the most awful things about the citizens there and now this aggression is moving to florida. this saddens me that we have such disrespect for each other (and i know that sounds corny). furthermore, why can\’t we help these people? look at all the money we are pumping into Iraq to teach imperialism (i mean democracy)….if we can fork over all the money for that, why can\’t we throw a few bones to the people that live here? to me that\’s what insurance is for. i am a dang good driver but fork over a lot of insurance money because in omaha people drive SUV\’s that cost the same amount of money as a small house! in some way shape or form, we are all paying for other people\’s choices.
so after all of the hurricanes in the world, after all the tornadoes, after all the snow storms, why is everyone so mad now???? why is helping each other out a problem NOW?
Thanks for your undrestanding of my position. In your defense, I believe that when people think Fl, they think million dollar condos and homes on the coast. There are many average folks, including some of my relatives, who live in the interior of the state that have a hard time with finances. My biggest complaint is the intrusion by government in the system.
Also, I will say that I have much more compassion towards the folks in FL, whose state has a good disaster reaction plan, and for the most part takes care of themselves, as opposed to LA whose leaders did not have a plan and just held out their hands and expected federal help. Some comments about the diverting money spent for Iraq, reminded me how much could have been done in New Orleans with the 200 million spent on the Super Dome.
Those are the folks i\’m talking about helping. I know there are plenty of rich folks in Florida and even Louisiana that people don\’t want to help, but I\’m sure there are plenty average joe\’s like myself who could genuinely use it (and have no intention of abusing the system).
and when i wrote the comment about Iraq, i was thinking about the SuperDome too…it took what, five minutes to get that all patched up? yet people are still living in other places other than their homes for a hurricane that occured what a year and a half ago?
again, i appreciate your articulation and intelligence on this issue.
Why not have independent companies invest in various areas. For instance, Comcast Cable could invest in 3 certain zip codes in Orange County Fla. and invest X dollars on rebuilding, or retrofitting homes to meet mitigation standards – or at least these investments could help guide homeowners into the proper building standards. Then they can lure businesses to the area. The area will have X amount of dollars in profit or tax breaks and X percentage would be returned to the investing company. The company would in essence be a re-insurer helping with the overall cost.
We all know that nothing the government does will help. FEMA proved that with gross incompetence in the wake of Katrina – pardon the pun. Nothing will change the over inflated insurance cost unless insurance companies do not have to shoulder as much of the burden. State and local authorities can debate all they want, but they will not acheive the goals they are looking for without professional help.
…and Morcia, you appear to be the leader! Sorry, Courtney, I thought it would be you.
\”wiped out by tornadoes and you dont get any help? you are a moron. every area hit with tornadoes gets declared a disaster area.\”
—>No, every area hit by tornados does not get declared a disaster area. And anyway, I think the point was not that a state government declared a disaster, but that the people that live in tornado areas didn\’t whine and complain when morons like you didn\’t run up here and offer your money or your services. I personally dedicated much time and much money to assist hurricane victims in 2004 and 2005. WHAT WERE YOU DOING?
Sure, people get help. But most of it is from neighbors helping neighbors, and insurance companies paying claims, and volunteers helping those with no insurance; not Joe Citizen getting on TV and crying \”Where\’s FEMA? I need help. I don\’t know how to help myself. I\’m depressed, where\’s a counselor? I didn\’t have flood insurance, where\’s a lawyer? Help me, help, me!\”
And, I have never see legislation proposed for CAT funds for the sake of anyone whose lives were destroyed by a tornado.
\”just what do you think declaring a something a disaster area means? it means you\’re raping the rest of the country\’s tax dollars to rebuild…\”
—>You just made the point of every supporter of personal responsibility and didn\’t even notice. \”raping the rest of the country\’s tax dollars to rebuild\” IT\’S MY MONEY, NOT YOURS! IF YOU\’RE GOING TO REBUILD WITH MY MONEY, I SHOULD HAVE A SAY IN HOW AND WHERE YOU REBUILD. OTHERWISE, LEAVE MY MONEY ALONE, AND DON\’T ASK FOR MY TAX DOLLARS TO BACK YOU UP!
\”…your trailer parks and deep fat fried restaurants so your cholsterol choked 300 lbs. bodies can get back on your over stressed feet.\”
—>And then you had to go and start calling names! I can see you have never been to the South and think we are all fat, stupid morons. Sad, sad, sad…
There\’s nothing wrong with helping out a neighbor, but it is wrong for the government to make it law, take our money away and give it to those who fail to protect themselves. The government screws up everything it tries to do. (At least that\’s what they want you to think. Its realy a plan to ease us into socialism.)
Look at the welfare state. \”Hey, can\’t find a job? We\’ll give you money until you find one! (months later… Hey, why ain\’t you found that job yet? (years later… Hey, your daddy used to come in here. How\’s he doing? HE\’S AT HOME, SMOKIN\’ CRACK.\”
\”look at all the money we are pumping into Iraq to teach imperialism (i mean democracy)….\”
Oh, and there was…
\”i am a dang good driver but fork over a lot of insurance money because in omaha people drive SUV\’s that cost the same amount of money as a small house!\” (emphasis added for \”SUV\”)
Pissed off about the war, and that someone drives a bigger car than you.! Bet you just got back from Wal-Mart with brand new \”compact flourecents\” to save the planet… Wait, not WAL-MART, I mean ACE Hardware!
A young man/lady was going to college and working nights. At this college, they were not only being taught the basic courses, but also the very liberal opinions of the professors.
During spring break, he/she went home and debated the conservative views that his/her father had and how his beliefs were not fair, leading to the following exchange…
“You have a 4.0 average in school, right?” He asked, knowing full well that he/she did indeed have a prefect GPA. “And how is your friend (add a name) doing?”
“They are just barely getting by.” Was the answer. “They party all night and barely make it to class… and never study. I think they are probably going to flunk out.”
“Well let’s be fair about this.” The father smiled. “You have a 4.0 and you don’t need all of that in order to get by. Why not give them 1.5 off your GPA so that they pass as well? You would still have a 2.5 which would be ok.”
To that he/she went on a tyrant. “That’s not fair… I’ve worked my *&& off to get that 4.0. I study hard every day, I never go out and party and I work every night to put myself through school. There’s no way that I am going to give up my 4.0!”
With that the father’s smile widened and he welcomed him/her to the conservative side…
It\’s all about being fair and these proposals for everyone to subsidize the coastal areas just isn\’t fair!
A lot of spirited debate has gone on.
I live in a coastal county in Florida. Average house, not on the beach at all. Actually havn\’t seen the beach in several months. Born and raised here. Kids born and raised here. Still have one at home and many of my family are buried here. I don\’t want to leave, but the cost to live here is gone out of control. We all do not want a hand out, but since the insurance companies cannot pay the claims they wrote policies for (not without a fight)and it is a National Program for all states (not only Florida)then why not. Go ahead and move to Florida. By the way, it is not 12 months of perfect weather….some of you are really idiots.
Actually, all they\’ve done is delayed the payment of premiums until after the event, in the form of assessments. At the same time, they imposed intra-state subsidies, so that the premiums paid by coastal policyholders are heavily subsidized by those living in inland Florida counties. Oh yeah, and they required that Citizens rates be inadequate. The legislature took a bad situation and made it much, much worse.
State level government and regulation with respect to insurance are myopic and ineffective. Let the rates and forms be handled federally. The primary basis of insurance is to pool risk. The larger the pool, the less impact cat coded losses will have. Also, the IRS and SEC should allow insurance carriers to put money aside in good years to buffer for bad years. That will keep rate changes less volitile.
The New Madrid fault has another major tremour and pancakes every building, highway, bridge and other piece of infrastructure from Arkansas to Illinois – dont whine to the rest of the country for help – you chose to live there and build inadequate structures to withstand the inevitable catastrophe, right?
I suppose this is the place for me to start my campaign. The number one problem for the world is over population. There are way too many of us. I strongly believe that a man has the right to reproduce only once and the woman has the right to reproduce only once. Any person that has more than one off-spring should be fined, possibly jailed, and definitely sterilized. As the old Blood, Sweat and Tears song, \”There\’ll be one child born in this world to carry on…\” NOT TWO, NOT THREE. If we reduce the population, we\’ll see the pollution, green-house, extinction of species, even some crime, be reduced and maybe vanish. I\’m all for abortion, castration, AIDS, war, bird-flu, anything that will thin the masses, even homosexuality. Only the strong survive.
Feel free to check out any time you like. Oh, and for those of us with more than 1 child, do you suggest we just kill the rest of them? It might be kind of fun seeing you get castrated.
I have two youthful drivers in my household that are costing me a lot of auto insurance premium. I would like to have a national youthful driver fund established to help offset my cost. Do you think these two fine FL congressmen will enter a bill to help me? What, policyholders without youthful drivers shouldn’t pay more premium to help cover my risks?
the bottom line is those people who have chosen to live in(or move to)a high risk area want to be subsidized by people who don\’t have the same exposure.
they should pay their own way, and not expect some little old lady in Utah to help pick up the tab for them.
My Workers\’ Comp is going thru the roof,I need help with premiums.
Where do I sign up?
\”the bottom line is those people who have chosen to live in(or move to)a high risk area want to be subsidized by people who don\’t have the same exposure.\”
bob-
When you say it like this it sounds like you mean EVERYONE. Is that what you mean? Or, do you mean just the people who like to freeload off others? I don\’t think anyone should have to pay for anyone else unless they choose to (donations to charity, etc.). It\’s kind of a shame that we have the Earned Income Credit and we have to pay higher prices as consumers due to shoplifters. Why should I have to pay more taxes so they can give the money to someone else? No, it isn\’t fair. But, not all disaster prone area residents want to be subsidized by others. I just wanted to clarify.
Fl Resident,
We know not all are looking for handouts. I think the real story is how our wonderful politicians (and I do mean in all parts of the country) pander to those that don\’t understand the cause and effect of these \”great\” solutions. The voting populous (apparently) wants to believe that there is some great money generating machine out there that can pay for these \”solutions\” when in reality it is you and me.
I just don\’t understand everyone\’s anger towards people who live in Hurricane prone areas?????? I really would like to know where all of these people live because apparently they never experience natural disasters. And if you are all so smart for discovering this weather free utopian society, why are you not sharing?
Courtney,
I live in Ohio. Yes we have some natural disasters but the last time I checked there is no legislation being pushed for Tornado or hail relief. As I stated earlier, I would rather have some help on my auto insurance because of those darn kids. Yes I wanted to have them, but it sure would be nice to have you and my other friends out help me with the premium.
Youthful Driver – I still think your comments are assinine. Because I have this feeling if the situation were reversed and those of us living in the midwest (including myself) started getting hammered with tornado after tornado, you and I would be asking for the same kind of help. If you look at the history of insurance and why it was created, I think these people have every right to ask for more assistance. Personally, I think we should tax people who have kids and put that money towards hurricaine relief. (or stop giving so many tax breaks to people with dependents) how about that??
Courtney, it is not anger (Well, maybe it is anger towards the politicians, but not the residents). It is frustration that some people do not want to accept the financial responsibility of their decision about where to live.
As to where we live, I live in Tennessee and we have had our share of tornadoes and floods. That is factored into our insurance rates. All we are asking is that the people in high risk areas accept the financial responsibility associated with their decision.
Courtney,
Try the mid-west, northeast, and anywhere that is not below sea level and more than 1 mile from the shore. I live in NY. We had 12 feet of snow in 3 days here, are we asking for a hand out? No, we chose to live here so we deal with the responsibilities of our decision. You chose to enjoy the weather and the beach while we were shoveling snow, now don\’t try to have us help you because you were unprepared to deal with your choice. If you want to enjoy 12 months of warm weather don\’t expect those of us who have 3 good months of weather to bail you out. It\’s all a trade off, you can\’t just pick the good times and whine when things turn bad. Insure yourself properly and hope that most of your neighbors do also. After your next huricane season when your state fund is bankrupt and your assessment is in the thousands then you can ask again why the rest of us don\’t want to finance your life style.
Ditto YD,
I live in Missouri and there is no such thing as a weather-free utopia. We get racked with hail, wind, & tornados every year. We live with it, and pay for it ourselves. Several communities in our fair state have been virtually wiped out in the last couple of years but I didn\’t see any Floridiotians offer money or tromp up here to help out. My inlaws live in Fort Myers and think its terrible we don\’t bail them out every year. I hope the Senate gives the same cool reception to a national fund as the national insurance commissioners did. I\’ve already told my senators and representative their job is in jeporady if they warm up to it.
The FL state legislature has lowered rates by agreeing to backstop the insurance companies in case of catastrophe. Now (and Courtney, this is where the anger comes in) the US Senators from FL are trying to get the rest of the country to cover the rear ends of the FL legislature, and be there to bail out the state if there is a catastrophe. So you have the residents as mentioned earlier not wanting to take responsibility for their decision, and now you have the FL legislature, through their senators, trying to eliminate their responsiblity should a catastrophe occur.
wiped out by tornadoes and you dont get any help? you are a moron. every area hit with tornadoes gets declared a disaster area. just what do you think declaring a something a disaster area means? it means you\’re raping the rest of the country\’s tax dollars to rebuild your trailer parks and deep fat fried restaurants so your cholsterol choked 300 lbs. bodies can get back on your over stressed feet.
Courtney,
Do you just hate children in general or are you just upset because you don\’t have any and don\’t get the $$$/tax credits that people with them get (and probably shouldn\’t).
Individuals that choose to have kids should pay for expenses incurred by their choose to have them. People who choose to live in Hurricane/wind prone areas should have to pay for the expenses incurred for choosing to live where they do.
Plan-and-simple. People need to be responsible for themselves and their families and not expect everyone else to alway help them out period.
What part of National do you people not understand? I did not realize that Florida was a nation and that this bill was to only provide funds to the people who live there.
Courtney & Morcia obviously have a clue.
actually, it would be a pretty good deal if Florida WAS a separate nation. but the residents would STILL want to get bailed out by everybody else.
National? Yeah right. If you think that this country is made up of just the gulf coast and southeastern states then this would be a national benefit, but it\’s not and the rest of us do not want to pay for your risk. End of story.
All of you must be from the \”me\” generation. What is wrong with helping out a neighbor?? Do we just care about ourselves? The national disaster fund would be for the entire nation. Floors, winter storms, tornado, mudslides, earthquake etc. What is wrong with you people? You should all be ashamed of yourselves. I am sure there are people in all parts of the country who have suffered one disaster or another and a lot of them didn\’t \”choose\” to live there. They were born there and have no means of leaving. I suppose all of you had and have a choice where you live. I am sure all of you could pack up tomorrow and move to parts unknown. I think some of you people better grown up and realize we have a problem here. Not just in Fl., but SC, NC, VA, MD, DE, New England, NY, NJ and any coastal state. If they all moved inland, we would have major crowding and a shortage of jobs. Get real people. I hate paying my taxes too. I hate paying for the benefits of poor but last I heard, we are one nation under GOD. Don\’t you think it is time to act that way???
I appreciate how you put it. MY anger comes from the childish remarks made by others about how unfair it is that these people are asking for help. I just think that if the situation were reversed, people like youthful drivers would be making similar requests. Let\’s not be catty, let\’s be realistic.
Me Generation, We care about other people. However, and this is the key…. we want to decide who we help and what causes we support financially, and do not want the government spending our money for us. I personally would rather make the decision to contribute to a non profit organization that helps in various times of needs from natural disasters to abuse to medical research etc as opposed to having the government tell me that I have to subsidize someone in a high risk area rebuild their house.
Also part of my definition of the me generation is someone who does not want to accept responsibility for their actions, and always look to someone else to blame, or in this case, expects someone else to bail them out of their situation.
And I personally don\’t care about contributing more of my income to people because….well…just because i don\’t. But, i do respect what Andrew said. (i\’m willing to take crap for what i\’m about to say, but call me an idealist). it saddens me to see all of these responses to people who are just trying to do what we\’re all trying to do….lead a good life, work hard and have nice stuff. and quite frankly i want people living in florida, louisiana, etc… because living in nebraska, it would make it really hard for me to buy goods shipped in from around the world without major port cities.
sorry, i was all over the place on my last one. here\’s what i meant to say….
i understand what andrew is saying and i see why he is saying it. me, i don\’t care…if i need to pay more (with some limitation) to help others, i don\’t mind.
since hurricaine katrina i have heard people say the most awful things about the citizens there and now this aggression is moving to florida. this saddens me that we have such disrespect for each other (and i know that sounds corny). furthermore, why can\’t we help these people? look at all the money we are pumping into Iraq to teach imperialism (i mean democracy)….if we can fork over all the money for that, why can\’t we throw a few bones to the people that live here? to me that\’s what insurance is for. i am a dang good driver but fork over a lot of insurance money because in omaha people drive SUV\’s that cost the same amount of money as a small house! in some way shape or form, we are all paying for other people\’s choices.
so after all of the hurricanes in the world, after all the tornadoes, after all the snow storms, why is everyone so mad now???? why is helping each other out a problem NOW?
Thanks for your undrestanding of my position. In your defense, I believe that when people think Fl, they think million dollar condos and homes on the coast. There are many average folks, including some of my relatives, who live in the interior of the state that have a hard time with finances. My biggest complaint is the intrusion by government in the system.
Also, I will say that I have much more compassion towards the folks in FL, whose state has a good disaster reaction plan, and for the most part takes care of themselves, as opposed to LA whose leaders did not have a plan and just held out their hands and expected federal help. Some comments about the diverting money spent for Iraq, reminded me how much could have been done in New Orleans with the 200 million spent on the Super Dome.
Those are the folks i\’m talking about helping. I know there are plenty of rich folks in Florida and even Louisiana that people don\’t want to help, but I\’m sure there are plenty average joe\’s like myself who could genuinely use it (and have no intention of abusing the system).
and when i wrote the comment about Iraq, i was thinking about the SuperDome too…it took what, five minutes to get that all patched up? yet people are still living in other places other than their homes for a hurricane that occured what a year and a half ago?
again, i appreciate your articulation and intelligence on this issue.
Why not have independent companies invest in various areas. For instance, Comcast Cable could invest in 3 certain zip codes in Orange County Fla. and invest X dollars on rebuilding, or retrofitting homes to meet mitigation standards – or at least these investments could help guide homeowners into the proper building standards. Then they can lure businesses to the area. The area will have X amount of dollars in profit or tax breaks and X percentage would be returned to the investing company. The company would in essence be a re-insurer helping with the overall cost.
We all know that nothing the government does will help. FEMA proved that with gross incompetence in the wake of Katrina – pardon the pun. Nothing will change the over inflated insurance cost unless insurance companies do not have to shoulder as much of the burden. State and local authorities can debate all they want, but they will not acheive the goals they are looking for without professional help.
…and Morcia, you appear to be the leader! Sorry, Courtney, I thought it would be you.
\”wiped out by tornadoes and you dont get any help? you are a moron. every area hit with tornadoes gets declared a disaster area.\”
—>No, every area hit by tornados does not get declared a disaster area. And anyway, I think the point was not that a state government declared a disaster, but that the people that live in tornado areas didn\’t whine and complain when morons like you didn\’t run up here and offer your money or your services. I personally dedicated much time and much money to assist hurricane victims in 2004 and 2005. WHAT WERE YOU DOING?
Sure, people get help. But most of it is from neighbors helping neighbors, and insurance companies paying claims, and volunteers helping those with no insurance; not Joe Citizen getting on TV and crying \”Where\’s FEMA? I need help. I don\’t know how to help myself. I\’m depressed, where\’s a counselor? I didn\’t have flood insurance, where\’s a lawyer? Help me, help, me!\”
And, I have never see legislation proposed for CAT funds for the sake of anyone whose lives were destroyed by a tornado.
\”just what do you think declaring a something a disaster area means? it means you\’re raping the rest of the country\’s tax dollars to rebuild…\”
—>You just made the point of every supporter of personal responsibility and didn\’t even notice. \”raping the rest of the country\’s tax dollars to rebuild\” IT\’S MY MONEY, NOT YOURS! IF YOU\’RE GOING TO REBUILD WITH MY MONEY, I SHOULD HAVE A SAY IN HOW AND WHERE YOU REBUILD. OTHERWISE, LEAVE MY MONEY ALONE, AND DON\’T ASK FOR MY TAX DOLLARS TO BACK YOU UP!
\”…your trailer parks and deep fat fried restaurants so your cholsterol choked 300 lbs. bodies can get back on your over stressed feet.\”
—>And then you had to go and start calling names! I can see you have never been to the South and think we are all fat, stupid morons. Sad, sad, sad…
Linda, you get third place…
\”Me Generation\”,
There\’s nothing wrong with helping out a neighbor, but it is wrong for the government to make it law, take our money away and give it to those who fail to protect themselves. The government screws up everything it tries to do. (At least that\’s what they want you to think. Its realy a plan to ease us into socialism.)
Look at the welfare state. \”Hey, can\’t find a job? We\’ll give you money until you find one! (months later… Hey, why ain\’t you found that job yet? (years later… Hey, your daddy used to come in here. How\’s he doing? HE\’S AT HOME, SMOKIN\’ CRACK.\”
Crap, you said it…
\”look at all the money we are pumping into Iraq to teach imperialism (i mean democracy)….\”
Oh, and there was…
\”i am a dang good driver but fork over a lot of insurance money because in omaha people drive SUV\’s that cost the same amount of money as a small house!\” (emphasis added for \”SUV\”)
Pissed off about the war, and that someone drives a bigger car than you.! Bet you just got back from Wal-Mart with brand new \”compact flourecents\” to save the planet… Wait, not WAL-MART, I mean ACE Hardware!
A young man/lady was going to college and working nights. At this college, they were not only being taught the basic courses, but also the very liberal opinions of the professors.
During spring break, he/she went home and debated the conservative views that his/her father had and how his beliefs were not fair, leading to the following exchange…
“You have a 4.0 average in school, right?” He asked, knowing full well that he/she did indeed have a prefect GPA. “And how is your friend (add a name) doing?”
“They are just barely getting by.” Was the answer. “They party all night and barely make it to class… and never study. I think they are probably going to flunk out.”
“Well let’s be fair about this.” The father smiled. “You have a 4.0 and you don’t need all of that in order to get by. Why not give them 1.5 off your GPA so that they pass as well? You would still have a 2.5 which would be ok.”
To that he/she went on a tyrant. “That’s not fair… I’ve worked my *&& off to get that 4.0. I study hard every day, I never go out and party and I work every night to put myself through school. There’s no way that I am going to give up my 4.0!”
With that the father’s smile widened and he welcomed him/her to the conservative side…
It\’s all about being fair and these proposals for everyone to subsidize the coastal areas just isn\’t fair!
A lot of spirited debate has gone on.
I live in a coastal county in Florida. Average house, not on the beach at all. Actually havn\’t seen the beach in several months. Born and raised here. Kids born and raised here. Still have one at home and many of my family are buried here. I don\’t want to leave, but the cost to live here is gone out of control. We all do not want a hand out, but since the insurance companies cannot pay the claims they wrote policies for (not without a fight)and it is a National Program for all states (not only Florida)then why not. Go ahead and move to Florida. By the way, it is not 12 months of perfect weather….some of you are really idiots.
Actually, all they\’ve done is delayed the payment of premiums until after the event, in the form of assessments. At the same time, they imposed intra-state subsidies, so that the premiums paid by coastal policyholders are heavily subsidized by those living in inland Florida counties. Oh yeah, and they required that Citizens rates be inadequate. The legislature took a bad situation and made it much, much worse.
State level government and regulation with respect to insurance are myopic and ineffective. Let the rates and forms be handled federally. The primary basis of insurance is to pool risk. The larger the pool, the less impact cat coded losses will have. Also, the IRS and SEC should allow insurance carriers to put money aside in good years to buffer for bad years. That will keep rate changes less volitile.
The New Madrid fault has another major tremour and pancakes every building, highway, bridge and other piece of infrastructure from Arkansas to Illinois – dont whine to the rest of the country for help – you chose to live there and build inadequate structures to withstand the inevitable catastrophe, right?
Well I\’m glad we\’ve had some good debate… The Republic is destined to fail when you allow the public to elect to pick another man\’s pocket.
\”I see stupid people\”, I agree with you and I also have a hard time not getting pissed off.
Morcia,
Bad comparison… since 1851 I believe there has only been one major earthquake to hit the New Madrid fault.
From 1851 through 2004, 75 major hurricanes have hit the U.S. gulf coast.
Oh, and by the way, I live at least 300 miles from the New Madrid fault, and I have earthquake coverage for my home.
I suppose this is the place for me to start my campaign. The number one problem for the world is over population. There are way too many of us. I strongly believe that a man has the right to reproduce only once and the woman has the right to reproduce only once. Any person that has more than one off-spring should be fined, possibly jailed, and definitely sterilized. As the old Blood, Sweat and Tears song, \”There\’ll be one child born in this world to carry on…\” NOT TWO, NOT THREE. If we reduce the population, we\’ll see the pollution, green-house, extinction of species, even some crime, be reduced and maybe vanish. I\’m all for abortion, castration, AIDS, war, bird-flu, anything that will thin the masses, even homosexuality. Only the strong survive.
Feel free to check out any time you like. Oh, and for those of us with more than 1 child, do you suggest we just kill the rest of them? It might be kind of fun seeing you get castrated.