This Carbon Based Life

By David Glenn Cox

Farmers Insurance have announced they are leaving Florida. Farmers is the fourth property insurance company to leave the state this year. Floridians pay the highest home insurance rates in the country, due to Florida being a hurricane’s favorite place to land. That’s not Ron DeSantis’s fault. He’s done his best for his insurance bros. He’s made it harder for Florida consumers to sue insurance companies. Under his “Don’t say Hurricane bill” he’s shuffled three billion dollars in public money their way to help them stem the tide.

But this Ronnie Reich’s Fuhrers Florida where you don’t get mad, you get even. Florida’s Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis tweeted,

“Hearing rumors @WeAreFarmers might pull out of Florida. If that’s true my office is going to explore every avenue possible for holding them accountable. Don’t get to leave after taking policyholder money. Can’t write auto if you’re not doing homeowners either. Zero communication!”

Holding them accountable? There was a time when Republicans praised the free market. Now it tries to bully them. They aren’t taking premiums and running away. The company is announcing that they are leaving. Zero communication! What do they need permission? What does the word announcement mean to you?

While we’re on the subject of announcements. Marge Tater Greene says that no one from the Free dumb caucus has contacted her, telling her she’s officially out of the club. But the story has been making national headlines all week. While apparently Greene has made no effort to find out for herself if all these stories on TV and the Internet are true.

Don’t be that person, leave with what little dignity you still have. They’ve made it clear they don’t want you in their little club anymore, so just leave quietly.

Florida’s insurance commissioner Michael Yaworksy also criticized Farmers decision. He did receive notice, but the notice was marked as a trade secret and so he can’t comment on the specifics. Saying only, That Farmers made the decision to leave Florida “independently “ of the state’s insurance reforms. (Don’t Say Hurricane, screw consumers)

It’s really simple, Farmers Insurance is in business to make money and the insurer no longer feels that they can make money in Florida. Even if you change the laws to make it easier to screw consumers. Goodies and gift baskets aren’t going to cut it. Don’t beg, it’s unseemly.

Yaworksy whines, “We are disappointed by the hastiness in this decision and troubled by how this decision may have cascading impacts to policyholders.”

Yeah, I’m sure Farmers held an executive board meeting and threw darts at a dartboard before making the decision. The board will now consult the Magic Eight Ball. Should we leave the Florida property insurance market? “All signs point to yes!” Well, that settles it.

Property insurance companies are going broke in Florida. That is one of the first things they teach you in business school, going broke is bad.

Specially, Farmers is dropping umbrella policies combining home an auto coverage. They will insure your car but not your house. The decision effects about 93,000 Floridians who must now scramble to find new property coverage at any price.

Insurance rates are soaring with rates rising year over year by as much as 40%. In Miami–Dade County an average cost of $5,665 per calendar year. Only $472 per month for home owners’ insurance to live in the People’s Republic of Florida. For the price of a new Cadillac, you could pay your property insurance. For those on fixed incomes, the word U-Haul immediately comes to mind.

This illustrates what I call the high cost of Tuberville. You could live in south Alabama for a fraction of the cost of living in Florida. But it is Alabama, case closed! Same ocean, same warm tropical climate. Same sugar white sandy beaches, only it’s Alabama. Case closed! The states ass backwardness is famous nationwide. Offering everything Florida offers plus a terrible racist reputation.  No one wants to retire in My Cousin Vinney Ville.

The Villages in central Florida is a gated retirement community that was/is making money hand over fist. Guaranteed economic segregation from the undesirables. A fantasy lifestyle with golf carts and excessive drinking. There is only one reason you couldn’t build a similar community in Alabama, except for the zip code. For Alabama, it should be as easy as picking up money off the floor except for the high cost of Tuberville.

One more hurricane, just one more big storm might push the property insurers over the edge. Making a Florida retirement as economically as viable as retiring on the moon. Ron DeSantis can claim climate change doesn’t exist, but the math and the bean counters say otherwise. Which means less of those fat wealthy Yankees coming to town. Less construction and more falling condo prices.

Fortunately for Ron DeSantis most Republican voters pay little attention to issues. They’re too worried about drag shows and school library books. Ron’s failure is entirely self-inflicted, and his campaign is struggling with an unplanned rapid disassembly. He must now do well in Iowa or bust. (All signs point to bust)

He’s been helped by Donald Trump trashing the popular Republican Iowa governor. But Ron’s problems at home grow. If by some chance, some huge and unlikely chance Ron wins the Republican nomination. The Florida property insurance crisis waits just under the surface to derail him.

For Alabama, how many companies just scratched the state off their list of new factory locations? The high cost of Tommy Tuberville. The Republican politicians in Florida are no less corrupt, no less conservative and their laws are just as draconian as Alabama. But they have the good sense to keep their mouths shut and not wear their Klan robes in public.