Lessons From Los Angeles

I have asked myself, long before the Los Angels fires, how we could end or, at least, curtail the misery of the seemingly unending natural disasters that are continuing to plaque the American people. 

This consideration is particularly apropos as we are currently living in an age of American “me first,” cold indifference toward one another.  There is no effort to end spree shootings and mass killings by limiting guns and their God-awful scrouge on our society.  No effort to end the suffering and needless deaths by creating a national health care system that every other industrialized nation has instituted.  No concern over the growing level of poverty and all the human and economic misery it perpetuates upon us.  

Now add to all this pain and suffering the reality that insurance companies, one of the greediest and richest enterprises in America, can no longer afford relief to those in real need.  In recent years they have concocted ways to refuse coverage to the victims of natural disasters and are refusing to provide coverage for natural disasters in future policies.  In many cases insurance companies are justified.  Los Angeles has needed an additional 62 fire stations to meet just average daily demand for years and no action was taken.  When firefighters tapped fire hydrants during the current fire travesties there was no water available. 

Best Report-PBS Video–“Was Not Unpredictable”-Causes and The Future

https://www.pbs.org/video/california-fires-tape-stephanie-dis-1736544154/ 

As history has taught us, the only real solution to situations like this has come from the federal government.  We have reached the point where national casualty insurance is the only effective means for victim relief.  Naturally, such coverage would impose restrictions on property located where the greatest risk for destruction exists.  Now the question arises as to how this could possibly be enacted.  America has tried for decades to enact national health care insurance with no success.  We are perfectly content to spend trillions of American dollars on wars raging all over the globe.  We see no problem in spending additional trillions on erecting athletic venues and enterprises, not to mention, billions more on oil subsidies. 

This is all so very sad.  It doesn’t have to be this way.  America has more than enough resources to do what must be done.  And the saddest commentary of all is that there is no relief in sight.