I'm just wondering if anyone knows if the aid that Bush is supposed to be handing out pertaining to Frances is actually going to help, or if it is going to magically vanish in one of those strange events, and shortly thereafter Jeb's going to go on a cruise after purchasing a few houses in other states.

FEMA cuts checks directly to the victims. There's a process with a paper trail.

Continued wellfare only breeds dependence. Only in very specific cases should wellfare be applied. In the case of florida, I believe that wellfare should only be given to those to explicitly need it, and no one else. And even then, it should only be given a limited number of times.

Disaster relief isn't welfare.

If it fosters dependence upon government money, no matter what name its under, it is a program derivative of welfare and is thus undesirable. If you haven't got the skill to get back on your own two feet by yourself, you need to fulfill the malthusian growth/loss ratio law and die and be done with it.

Here here! Survival of the fittest!

I view disaster relief in a nationalist way. Earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes are "acts of God". It isn't a persons fault if their home gets wiped out by mother nature. Helping each other out through tax dollars after these events is a good thing.

I will hunt down and kill anyone who calls me a liberal for having this opinion.

Holy shit Synikul has a heart!

Amazing, ain't it?

Is it a person's fault if they get diabetes?

No, Qoji, its their parents fault.

Liberal. Go buy yourself some Birkenstocks. Now.

I agree that national relief has the nation's interest in mind. Who else is going to help now that the insurance companies are pulling out of Florida like it was infested with the plague? Part of the role of federal government is to provide a measure of security to its citizens.

What I'm against is the plan to make insurance premiums rise nationwide every time a payout has to happen in a certain area. That's saying I have to pay more because someone who uses my insurance company happens to live in California or Florida and gets a payout due to a natural disaster.

Why zing people elsewhere in the country because someone else thinks living on a faultline or in an area that can get hit by two or three or four hurricanes in a year is a good payoff for year-round sunshine? If they want to take the risk, they should pay for it, not the rest.

You're on the list now.

The gov't has to step in for things like this. It's only half because I have a heart, even though it's small, and cold, and black.

The insurance companies CAN'T provide affordable hurricane insurance in Florida, or flood insurance along the Mississippi River, or earthquake insurance in California. They would go out of business because those events are regular and almost predictable in those areas.

But we have to have people living and working in those areas. The Mississippi flood plain is some of the best agricultural land in the country, we need people living and working there. Florida is a worldwide tourist destination, and one of the few places we can grow citrus fruit. We need people living and working there. L.A. and San Francisco are two of the best and busiest deep water ports in the country, so we need people there too.

All of that is in the best interest of every American, so we have to pick up the slack for the disaster relief that the insurance companies can't provide.

I'm shaking in my boots, really.

You're preaching to the choir. In case you didn't read my response closely, I agreed with you.

Well, that's more than a lot of other so-called "compassionate" conservatives have. Feel special.

So by "we" are you speaking of the government, or other premium payers of the same insurance companies?

I understand the economic viability of those areas. I'm not saying that high-risk areas should be depopulated, just that perhaps there are other means of taking care of the problem aside from throwing other peoples' hard-earned money at it. To say that we should all bear the expense equally just sounds so...I don't know...socialist.

Fear me. I am vengeance, I am the night, I am......drunk.

No shit. I was just expanding on the details.

I'm not the average conservative. In many ways. I bet JLB reads my posts and wants to pull his hair out because he can't respond.

Both. That's the way both taxes, and insurance works. The insurance company is "the house" and they are betting on how much it will cost them to cover the losses.

It is a bit socialist. The only change I'd like to see is the state governments collecting their own tax, on their citizens to pick up more of the tab.

The socialist bit was in jest. I don't have a phobia of any particular political ideologies. I can whole-heartedly agree with state governments handling these affairs better. After all, if you're going to govern Florida, "The Hurricane State", you damn well better put common natural disasters on your priority list of things to be prepared for. I'm sure they already have plans, but obviously it's not enough for situations like Florida is experiencing at the moment.

I'm thinking there might be other areas where improvements could be made, on a more civic level. Perhaps some Florida architects could come up with home designs a bit more resistant to high winds, and use materials less likely to come apart with the next big one, rather than rebuilding the same houses out of the same stuff that will just come apart next year. A little forethought goes a long way.

Like, down in Mississippi, they could attach quick-inflate pontoons to their trailers...the really affluent ones could buy anchors if they don't feel like relocating with every flood.

I saw something about this on TV a few nights ago. It was either the news, or the History Channel, can't remember. They had new building codes put into effect a few years ago. On the beaches, there are new houses still standing, built to the new codes, right next to piles of rubble that used to be older houses.



I hate it when a thread comes down to agreeing with someone. That spoils all the fun.

Fuck you, you wanker!

Ah but you forget, shadowborn, that for the most part people are idiots.

*waits for Synikul's answer*

I haven't forgotten...believe me, I'd like to, but it's impossible. *sigh*