Matt Welch Talks About Subsidized Homeowner Insurance on Freedom Watch

Edited by Matt Welch | August 31, 2011

Reason Editor in Chief Matt Welch appeared on Freedom Watch to discuss why the government actually subsidized many risky homes by giving cheaper insurance to beachfront houses. Airdate: August 30, 2011.

Approximately 5 minutes

Go to reason.tv for downloadable versions and subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube channel to receive automatic notification when new material goes live.

Reason needs your support. Please donate today!

Try Reason's award-winning print edition today! Your first issue is FREE if you are not completely satisfied.

See all 13 comments | Leave a comment

Editor's Note: We invite comments and request that they be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of Reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment or disable your ability to comment for any reason at any time.

Voter|8.31.11 @ 4:43PM|#

Keep yer handz off mi free stuf!

Fist of Etiquette|8.31.11 @ 4:46PM|#

"So, why is the Federal Government encouraging these homes to be built in the first place...?"

The feds love housing at any cost.

Fist of Etiquette|8.31.11 @ 4:52PM|#

"If you're gonna build in a risky zone, in a hurricane path, in a floodplain, anywhere like that, you should be able to bear the responsibility of the risks yourself by paying for the insurance."

Cold, heartless libertarians sticking it to Malibu residents.

Fist of Etiquette|8.31.11 @ 4:54PM|#

Matt Welch talking about shaming people, but yet he refuses to knot that tie up to a respectable tautness. That's the real shame of it all.

GILMORE|8.31.11 @ 6:00PM|#

Fist of Etiquette|8.31.11 @ 4:54PM|#
Matt Welch talking about shaming people, but yet he refuses to knot that tie up to a respectable tautness. That's the real shame of it all

Your missing the forest for the trees...

or rather, missing the surprisingly appropriate-color shirt with the (near ubiquitous) blue tie. Which - given that this is now 2 appearances in a row without some kind of ghastly clashing-effect? - is a sign that the Summer of Welch's Wacky Suit-Ensembles may finally have come to an end.

Sure, maybe the next step in recovery is to convince the guy to do a decent half-Windsor instead of the 'slacker's four-in-hand'-knot, but I think you're asking for a bit much given the depths from which he's risen.

I for one am proud. Be glad he didn't go stripes on stripes.

Idiot Savant|8.31.11 @ 7:20PM|#

The real question is, If Margaret Thatcher was alive today, wouldn't you want to just be her sex slave for at least one night? I would.

AdamJ|8.31.11 @ 10:25PM|#

I can't stand the giant windsor knot that was the rage in the early 2000s. Why do dudes want to wear a knot the size of a grapefruit?

GILMORE|9.1.11 @ 1:33AM|#

Which is precisely why the half-windsor (aka 'the schoolboy knot') is the preferred suit-complement

http://www.google.com/imgres?q.....,r:5,s:100

http://www.google.com/imgres?q.....,r:0,s:115

rapacity of the white man|9.1.11 @ 4:46AM|#

Privation property land entitlement is the original Big Government Subsidized redistribution program.

[The rights of the Indians had been] assailed by the rapacity of the white man....The border white man's connection with the Indians [was] a sickening record of murder, outrage, robbery, and wrongs committed by the former as the rule.

1869 Board of Indian Commissioners Annual Report 10

|9.1.11 @ 9:18AM|#

Typical government. Insurance companies, who must lay off risk after computing probability of losses, won't insure property in flood planes for ANY money.

Government answer? Off such insurance, at a bargain, with the taxpayer laying off the risk.

Hurricane losses (mostly water damage) are the ultimate illustration of too much government.

daveInAustin|9.1.11 @ 11:45AM|#

When libertarians are accused of not caring for the environment because they want to cut the EPA, they need to go on the offensive and let folks know how much of their money is going towards subsidizing construction in environmentally sensitive areas. Insurance schemes like the ones Matt is talking about are just one example.
As another example, Consider all the logging roads that are being built that cost more than the the total value of the timber being harvested (Bill Bryson talks about it in "A Walk in the Woods".

|9.1.11 @ 12:52PM|#

"There's nothing that does so much harm as good intentions."

العراق|11.5.11 @ 4:16PM|#

Thank you

Reason RUPE: Public Opinion Survey

Get Reason E-mail Updates!

Manage your Reason e-mail list subscriptions

Site comments/questions:

Media Inquiries and Reprint Permissions:

(310) 367-6109

Editorial & Production Offices:

3415 S. Sepulveda Blvd.
Suite 400
Los Angeles, CA 90034
(310) 391-2245

Reason.com