Hurricane season is underway in North America, with the worst storms likely between August and October. Americans who live inland may think they have nothing to worry about, because their homes will not be drowned in salt water. But they are at high risk anyway, writes Steve Chapman.
That’s because they will have to shoulder a large share of the cost of helping homeowners who live in the path of tropical storms. The National Flood Insurance Program, created in 1968 under President Johnson on the theory that the private insurance market couldn’t handle flood damage, presumed that Washington could. Like many of his Great Society initiatives, it has turned out to be an expensive tutorial on the perils of government intervention.
The program is set to expire at the end of July, Chapman notes, but Congress will undoubtedly renew it sooner or later. Correcting its perverse incentives, however, may be a bridge too far.
from Hit & Run https://ift.tt/2uYOk6f
via IFTTT