WaPo: Compulsory flood insurance
Tags: wapoThe WaPo editorial "Rethinking Flood Insurance" wants to make that mandatory, and stop subsidizing it. Of course, there would be a few loopholes:
In some areas that have acute shortages of safe land — New Orleans being one — this may inflict hardship on the poor. But the best way to address that is to offer means-tested subsidies in a few jurisdictions, not to offer subsidies to rich and poor alike all over the nation.
The little libertarian on my shoulder is jumping up and down and screaming Statists! over and over. He says that the federal government should make it absolutely clear that there will never be any kind of a bailout. Then, the much exalted market will do its work and building in flood-prone areas will be disincentivized.
