Now. With that out of the way, please help me see where I have failed to address your comments.
You have stated, in essence, that things are tough for Florida homeowners. You have stated that things are SO tough that the only option in the current market situtation is to fold up and sell your home, and that there are no buyers, so that the only option for many is to walk away from their homes. Is that a correct representation? You are saying that because of the extreme nature of the market that "something has to be done" and by that "something" you mean state intervention. Is that correct? If that is correct, then please take a second look at my neurally deficient howling screed and you might see that I actually HAVE addressed the problem in the following manner:
1) We should seek solutions to this, and any other market distortions, from the point of view that THE MARKETS THEMSELVES HAVE THE BEST CORRECTIVES if you let them function in freedom.
2) This corrective will involve pain, at times.
3) Government intrusion into markets should only be within the Constitutional (State of Florida Constitution in this case) prescriptions for and proscriptions against, power. This largely limits the state to defining and enforcing voluntary contracts.
Screeching "but you don't understand how BAD it is" is not a response.
If I have missed something here, I am happy to be enlightened.
But yes, there are tens of thousands of individual policy holders that face severe problems, but the problem is bigger than those individuals and my focus has been on what could happen if there are no good choices for those policy holders.
(Let's also remember that these policy holders came to the state and bought policies under the existing rules and conditions without knowing or understanding what level of state involvement there was in the rate structuring.)
Now I think you are starting to get the point that there seems to be a significant number of property insurance policy holders who now, after years of fairly stable rates, now face unaffordable rates. And this isn't just homeowners.
At this point, blaming the state's past invovlement isn't constructive even where correct.
This isn't a matter of a few people rebudgeting; it is businesses that can't be insured that close with layoffs; it is the rental market drying up because landlords/property investors can't insure their apartment and rental homes; it is yankees with secondary homes in Florida that are not insurable; it is city and state revenues that take severe drops; and I don't think that it is unrealistic to foresee a true economic disaster in Floria.
If that happens, what next?
1) We should seek solutions to this, and any other market distortions, from the point of view that THE MARKETS THEMSELVES HAVE THE BEST CORRECTIVES if you let them function in freedom.
I would normally agree, however the cows are already out of the barn. While we can leave the door open and wait for them to return, there's a lot of bad things that can happen and my questions are directed on the immediate problems.
2) This corrective will involve pain, at times.
Pain we know. But do you have a corrective action in mind?
3) Government intrusion into markets should only be within the Constitutional (State of Florida Constitution in this case) prescriptions for and proscriptions against, power. This largely limits the state to defining and enforcing voluntary contracts.
Agreed. However, once again, it is too late right now to talk about what should or should not have happened before. Realize, too, that there are more than a few people who are still battling insurance company on justified wind damage claims. Some insurance companies have shown themselves in need of legal remedies to fulfill their portion of voluntary contracts.
Again, my questions are these:
1)With the prospect of property owners unable to insure their property and unable to sell their property, what do you recommend that they do?
2)With the state aware of this situation and the potential for widespread economic loss, what does the state do?
And one point to consider,Floridians, for the most part, are not living in mansions on the sand of the beaches but are living in more modest traditional homes miles inland.