Perhaps the most interesting part of the article:

  • homura1650@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    The problem is that people cannot simply get out at scale. The homes themselves are not portable and represent a significant investment that most homeowners cannot afford to lose. An individual can sell, but that requires there being a buyer, so doesn’t actually solve the problem.

    What is needed here is a government funded relocation program. The government buys houses in eligible areas at market rate (locked in at the time the program starts, as market rate should collapse to 0). Then, the government does nothing, and saves money from not needing to subsidize the insurance market, and need needing to spend as much on disaster response and relief. Given that the disaster relief savings is largely born by the federal government, this program should receive federal funding as well.

    • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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      9 hours ago

      In the US, voters have shown over and over that they don’t care if a lot of people become homeless. Why would you expect them to care about people who become homeless because of fires than they do about people who become homeless because of economic conditions?

    • michaelmrose@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      So someone has say 2 million in real estate and 1.5 million in other Investements. They are at risk of losing some of that 3.5M while still counting themselves wealthy and the government who can’t afford to provide a whole laundry list of shit for normal people just hands them a few million to ensure their bad decisions don’t cost them anything.

      How about we don’t subsidize your insurance and if you suck up you just lose your money.

    • jfrnz@lemm.ee
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      1 day ago

      Why should my tax dollars be used to bail out someone who bought a multimillion dollar home in a high risk area? Why should home owners get all the profits from owning but get to skirt the risks?

      • Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        That’s an easy one. Because the government let this happen by not reigning in the corporate pollution it knew was happenig. All so the economy would grow and grow which is what gave you the money to pay those taxes. So the tax dollars you are giving the gov are the reason these people need to move.

        • kipo@lemm.ee
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          12 hours ago

          I think relocation (and getting people comfortable with their tax dollars going towards it) would work better if the US states weren’t so ideologically divided.

          There is no way I want the average republican relocating to my state, let alone wanting to pay for such punishment.

    • fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 day ago

      This is a terrible idea.

      We bought our present home 6 years ago. One house we looked at was in a low lying area, probably less than a metre above the high tide line. We didn’t buy that home because I’m not an idiot.

      Since the dawn of time people have been building homes in silly places and losing their money as a result. It’s a shame.

      In the next century there’s going to be a great many people displaced due to climate change. Let’s not start out by indemnifying those who pretended climate change wasn’t a thing.

      • homura1650@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        When was that house built? What should the current owners do with it? If they sell, someone else needs to buy. Someone is going to be left holding the bag for a decision made decades ago.

        And our current approach already indemnifies them, because their flood insurance is provided by the federal government as no private insurer will offer it. Then, when a flood hits, we all pay for it, along with the emergency response during and after the event.

        • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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          9 hours ago

          It was always a terrible idea for the government to offer insurance when private insurers wouldn’t. It just forces everyone to subsidize the lifestyles of people who choose to live in disaster-prone areas. Perhaps it was necessary for a time to avoid major economic upheaval, but constantly rebuilding in areas where disasters keep happening should never have been allowed to become a long-term policy.

        • fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de
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          1 day ago

          I’m somewhat astonished that you think owners of this type of property ought to be indemnified in any way.

          If I inherited such a property, I would absolutely try to find a “greater fool” to buy it.

          I would point out though, properties like that aren’t going to be unsaleable over night. They’re just going to be less desirable than other properties.

        • michaelmrose@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          The government shouldn’t offer insurance the market won’t. The person holding the bag is the most recent idiot.

            • TehWorld@lemmy.world
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              4 hours ago

              Then they have PLENTY of equity to move to a place better suited to their risk tolerance.

            • nomy
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              17 hours ago

              We all know who’s responsible for it.

              Petroleum companies, oil and plastics added so much pollution in such a short amount of time the planet couldn’t deal with it and it’s likely led to significant, global-level environmental impact.