Comment by Panzer04
1 day ago
Why bother building a better home when it's cheaper to buy insurance and rebuild later?
This is why prices are important - sometimes it's sensible to build cheaper houses without these safeties if the risk isn't there, but if the risk does exist then it needs to be priced right to provide that incentive.
The key thing to understand is that you don't get to choose when the house gets destroyed or get advanced notice. Which means you might be in there, or your kids, or all your belongings. But yes, after you're dead in the rubble someone else can rebuild your house and it might be cheaper.
These wildfires produce surprisingly few deaths.
Did you know the most destructive wildfire in California history, the 2018 Camp Fire, destroyed 19,000 buildings but only caused 85 deaths? [1]
[1] https://oehha.ca.gov/sites/default/files/media/downloads/cli...
Immediate deaths. How many suicides happened after the fact as an indirect cause?
Yes of course, but everything in life is a risk trade off. Presumably the person you’re replying to understands that.
There’s not much rubble for a house made of wood!
How about the cost of your life? If the house resists the earthquake and you are inside it, you don't die.
Building to protect occupants and building to make the structure salvageable afterwards may be two different goals. Think crumple zones in cars.
This is not a good analogy.
Crumple zones in cars exist under the assumption that they will not be occupied by humans. In a house, on the other hand, any place could have a person inside of it during an earthquake, meaning that basically the entire house would need to stand to avoid any human being hurt.
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Nice point. Still, in wast majority of cases, house keeps standing -> habitant survival chance goes up.
Cars being on the move, makes that distinction much much more relevant
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Where is the crumple zone in the burned out buildings in California?
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We were speaking in the context of fires previously - in which case it's usually more about preserving the neighbourhood and land than anything else, you have to evacuate regardless.
Earthquakes are different and you'd need a house that stood anyway (though I'd guess most houses don't have a problem with earthquakes insofar as not collapsing on inhabitants, though they'd probably be damaged)
Not true. In the 2023 earthquake in Turkey 10s of thousands of apartment buildings collapsed. Official death toll is 60k or so but it's widely known that the actual number is at least twice that.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Turkey%E2%80%93Syria_ea...
Loss of life from fire and earthquake isnt really high enough to be a concern. This is primarily a cost and inconvenience question.
Maybe be there is no longer "cheap" and that's the issue
I don't understand the downvote. I think this hit the nail on its head.
People whine about insurances pulling out. All they want is for somebody else to pay for their risk. It's their choice to live in that area, they should bear the consequences. It's not like it is or has ever been a secret. Climate change is known for decades now. Many people just chose not to "believe" in it. Well, their choice, but now that sh* hits the fan, they shouldn't come whine that everything gets sprayed with poo.
But this cuts both ways. The insurers chose to provide their services in the area for the amount of money agreed upon. If anyone was more aware of the risks and probabilities, it's them.
Why do they get to pull out now when it's time to hold their end of the contract?
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Please do let me know where I can live that is guaranteed to be safe from unexpected natural disaster.
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Maybe people don't like to restart their lives like that if it's avoidable, even if it costs more.
in case of earthquakes: to not to die.
Only you also take into account your cheap home will likely accelerate the problem. Which never happens.
Hah financialization strikes again. Try explaining this to a person from a third world country, they would say "what are you talking about". Also they would have better health care than your average American.