Dear Editor,
It is the government with a Constitutional requirement to protect the lives and property of its citizens — not State Farm or Allstate. Protecting people and property is supposed to be the government’s number one job. The number one job of insurance companies is to make a profit.
These insurance companies didn’t flee California out of greed. They fled for survival. Insurance companies saw the dereliction of duty committed by California Democrats and got the heck out. Everyone knows California is susceptible to wildfires, and insurance companies knew Democrats weren’t doing anything about it. There were no controlled burns. There was no brush clearing. The reservoirs weren’t filled. The fire department budget had been cut.
Additionally, in the event of a wildfire, the insurance companies understood that due to government malfeasance, replacing these homes would be artificially and insanely expensive. California Democrats refuse to build enough housing even as they import millions of illegal aliens. This explodes the cost of housing.
Additionally, all the unnecessary government red tape required to build or rebuild explodes the cost of housing.
Then there’s the fact that the government refused to let the insurance companies raise their rates to a level that met the obvious risk.
Elections have consequences, and this time, people paid for it with their lives and their homes.
Lawrence Weisdorn, Malibu