The Superstorm Sandy...along with Katrina and a host of severe tornadoes in recent years coupled with a rising sea level has rekindled the global warming debate and sidebars like the following have developed as a result: http://news.msn.com/us/nj-agonizes-over-whether-to-rebuild-battered-shore Do we rebuild in the same places and hope we get another 100 years out of it before eventual destruction or do we scale back and accept that these new weather developments are more severe and likely to reoccur due to recent man made climate changes stemming from the industrialization of the globe? I don't have an answer to offer....just asking.
It's a good question. Actually since Katrina tropical storm activity has calmed down. There were something like 10 major hurricanes that hit the east coast in something like 5 or 6 years in the 1960's. What I'm saying is that the coast has always been subject to these major systems. I think that the big difference is that the coast is now so much more built up that they can't but help striking a major area and causing so much damage. Do you build and rebuild? Do you try to develop a more storm-resistant infrastructure? Is such a thing possible? I don't see us pulling back from the coast...just not gonna happen.
The problem with this storm is it's not just the millionaires who can afford to rebuild or who can afford to buy the what will be exorbitant insurance that allows them to do so but it's the cities and town's infrastructure and the regular citizenry who have been severely affected and need to rebuild also. Is the policy going forward a "rebuild at your own risk" one in which case millionaires will be millionaires and the coastal areas will be rebuilt regardless? But what about the rest including the regular Joes, city governments and municipalities who can ill afford to rebuild themselves and certainly can't afford bearing the risk of another catastrophe after rebuilding?
Many of the affected structures are covered by Federal flood insurance. The insurance is requried on any homes build near a shoreline that have mortgages through FDIC insured banks. That means that poor stiffs that buy homes on the Great Lakes have to pay premiums for that insurance although the actual risk is almost nothing. They in effect subsidize all those folks who build on the Atlantic and Gulf. It's just another way that the governement redistributes.
Dave, have you ever considered that those that can't afford the risk should possibly find a less risky area in which to build?
Tom.... I just toured the entire Jersy shore three weeks ago. There is a whole lot of people who live and work there......average people.....not just the rich guys on the water. Whole towns.... supported by average Joes going to the hardware store and Walmart. Where do they go?
NY Mayor Bloomberg... an independent who did not endorse a candidate in 2008.....endorses Obama. "But he said in an op ed published on his website that his eagerness to see action on climate change legislation persuaded him to back a second term for the president. Bloomberg also explained that while he admired Mitt Romney, his stance on a number of social issues gave him pause. I believe Mitt Romney is a good and decent man, and he would bring valuable business experience to the Oval Office. He understands that America was built on the promise of equal opportunity, not equal results. In the past he has also taken sensible positions on immigration, illegal guns, abortion rights and health care. But he has reversed course on all of them, and is even running against the health-care model he signed into law in Massachusetts. If the 1994 or 2003 version of Mitt Romney were running for president, I may well have voted for him because, like so many other independents, I have found the past four years to be, in a word, disappointing." The last paragraph underscores my thoughts on the reinvented for GOP puposes Romney. Romney the sense maker.....the moderate.....has been swallowed up by the voracious far right in the GOP. Too bad.....
Complete and utter ********. Romney is much closer to the center than the Socialist in the White House. That's why he is doing well with independents.