The Feds Shouldn’t Subsidize Fancy, Risky Beach Houses

Link: https://reason.com/2024/01/10/the-feds-shouldnt-subsidize-fancy-risky-beach-houses/

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Sen. John Kennedy (R–La.) is upset because Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.) wants to limit federal flood insurance.

But Paul is right. In my new video, Paul says, “[It] shouldn’t be for rich people.”

That should be obvious. Actually, federal flood insurance shouldn’t be for anyone. Government has no business offering it. That’s a job for the insurance business.

Of course, when actual insurance businesses, with their own money on the line, checked out what some people wanted them to insure, they said, “Heck no! If you build in a dangerous place, risk your own money!”

Politically connected homeowners who own property on the edges of rivers and oceans didn’t like that. They whined to congressmen, crying, “We can’t get insurance! Do something!”

Craven politicians obliged. Bureaucrats at the Federal Emergency Management Agency even claim they have to issue government insurance because, “There weren’t many affordable options for private flood insurance, especially for people living in high-risk places.”

But that’s the point! A valuable function of private insurance is to warn people away from high-risk places.

Author(s): John Stossel

Publication Date: 10 Jan 2024

Publication Site: Reason