I’m fed up with all the rich people who live in New York and New Jersey. What riles me most is how they were able to redefine “middle class” as people who earn over $400,000.
Why? Because the cost of living is so high in New York City and its environs that $250,000 isn’t worth squat.
I don’t know why Washington didn’t just make an exemption for them and use the national average of $100,000 – that’s the average income of small business owners who have an established business. (The average is half that for businesses less than 10 years old.)
Okay, so New York and New Jersey were hit by one of the worse storms in history. What about last year, and Irene? All told, that part of the east coast gets almost as many hurricanes as the Gulf Coast. Here’s a list at Wikipedia.
The media acts like this was a totally unexpected event. Not!
Down south, anybody who lives within 100 miles of the coast has to pay for a “windstorm damage” premium. This makes house insurance almost 4 times regular coverage. This “windstorm damage” premium goes into a pool that pays for storm damage.
People in flood prone areas are also required to buy flood insurance, which is only about $200 a year (versus $6000 a year for full coverage on a $250,000 home).
You’re telling me that those rich people with the gorgeous Oceanside mansions destroyed by the rising ocean didn’t have flood insurance? Those multi-millionaires couldn’t pay $200 a year for flood insurance, and now they want the government to bail them out?
My sympathy for New Yorkers is limited, at the best of times.
The five Too Big To Fail banks on Wall Street own derivatives worth ten times the total output of the whole world, $600 trillion. (With a T.) They can’t finance $10 billion in damages?
All the major banks on the Street leverage their assets 30:1. When the stock market goes up 5% as it did last week, they make 150% on their investments. I bet they made $100 billion last week alone, cash money.
I think the government should cover all the people who had flood insurance and set up a fund to help poor and working-class people who got wiped out, and let the fat cats fend for themselves.
Enough is enough.
