I imagine it is a lot easier to avoid an accident than avoid most modern diseases eg cancer. So it make sense to concentrate on the risks you can do most about.
people refuse to buy flood insurance even when it is heavily subsidized and priced far below an actuarially fair value.
How do they know it is heavily subsidized and priced far below an actuarially fair value?
Is it worth going to all the trouble of finding out?
How do they know it is heavily subsidized and priced far below an actuarially fair value?
I don’t think they realize this. Recently in my area some flood maps were updated to take account of new data suggesting increased risks, with subsequent increases in the subsidized flood insurance rates. The affected households raised a hue and cry, enlisting senators in their cause, and many got the increases reversed. Nothing in the rhetoric I read suggested that they realized they were already getting a great deal; instead, here and in the Florida articles I read (where the government objected to the remaining insurer increasing rates after recent hurricanes), the unstated assumption seemed to be that the rates were ‘unfair’ and profitable.
Is it worth going to all the trouble of finding out?
A house is hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the disruption to your life if it and its contents are destroyed is profound. In some place like Florida, it may be more likely than not that in your lifetime your house will be damaged or destroyed, especially given the suggestion that global warming will increase the variance of storms (and hence the occurrence of super-hurricanes). I think it is worthwhile!
Whilst it is true that it is a lot easier to avoid an accident than a disease, you can probably do more about your risk of dying of disease. For example, you could verse yourself in the symptoms of various diseases; then you would be more likely to know if you caught one. With a lot of diseases, catching it early will vastly increase your odds of surviving. Combine that with the fact that dying of an accident isn’t a common cause of death in the first place; and even if you were able to cut your risk of disease death by only one-fifteenth, that would be more than completely eliminating the risk of accidents.
I imagine it is a lot easier to avoid an accident than avoid most modern diseases eg cancer. So it make sense to concentrate on the risks you can do most about.
people refuse to buy flood insurance even when it is heavily subsidized and priced far below an actuarially fair value.
How do they know it is heavily subsidized and priced far below an actuarially fair value?
Is it worth going to all the trouble of finding out?
I don’t think they realize this. Recently in my area some flood maps were updated to take account of new data suggesting increased risks, with subsequent increases in the subsidized flood insurance rates. The affected households raised a hue and cry, enlisting senators in their cause, and many got the increases reversed. Nothing in the rhetoric I read suggested that they realized they were already getting a great deal; instead, here and in the Florida articles I read (where the government objected to the remaining insurer increasing rates after recent hurricanes), the unstated assumption seemed to be that the rates were ‘unfair’ and profitable.
A house is hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the disruption to your life if it and its contents are destroyed is profound. In some place like Florida, it may be more likely than not that in your lifetime your house will be damaged or destroyed, especially given the suggestion that global warming will increase the variance of storms (and hence the occurrence of super-hurricanes). I think it is worthwhile!
Whilst it is true that it is a lot easier to avoid an accident than a disease, you can probably do more about your risk of dying of disease. For example, you could verse yourself in the symptoms of various diseases; then you would be more likely to know if you caught one. With a lot of diseases, catching it early will vastly increase your odds of surviving. Combine that with the fact that dying of an accident isn’t a common cause of death in the first place; and even if you were able to cut your risk of disease death by only one-fifteenth, that would be more than completely eliminating the risk of accidents.