SUBSIDIZING BAD PRACTICES GETS YOU MORE OF THE SAME

I've been bitching about this dumb federal program forever. No, we shouldn't be in the business of helping people rebuild in the likely path of hurricanes:

Dozens of wealthy beach towns and coastal communities turned to the federal agency after Isabel and received tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded disaster relief, records obtained by The Washington Post under the Freedom of Information Act show.

The bulk of the money was used to clear debris and pay for emergency workers' overtime. Hundreds of thousands of dollars, however, were used to repair flagpoles, signs, bike paths and ball fields. And, in what some environmental groups and regulators say is a troubling development, the federal agency is paying for an estimated $15 million worth of sand.

Emerald Isle "was a declared area and they were an eligible applicant and they were funded," said Paul Wilson, a disaster recovery specialist in FEMA's Atlanta office. Agency officials did not respond to requests for additional comment.

Why is the nation's disaster relief agency paying for sand? Under FEMA's policies, beaches such as those in Emerald Isle are viewed as part of the public infrastructure, similar to a water plant or an electric utility. As long as the beaches are maintained and there is a federally declared disaster -- such as a hurricane -- a community can apply for funds to replace any washed-away sand.

The rationale is that the FEMA-funded beaches and sand dunes protect property and reduce storm damage. But some environmentalists say that FEMA, by paying for sand, is encouraging risky development in the very places that people should be avoiding, and exposing the federal treasury to an endless cycle of bailouts in the process.

This is what happens with most disaster relief programs. By funding rebuilding in the same high-risk areas, you guarantee a cycle of periodic destruction.

For years, there's been a similar push by the insurance industry to get the feds to guarantee a bailout for anything over a certain amount of earthquake damage.

Now, in insurance, premium payments are supposed to represent risk. But when insurance carriers lower premiums (because the federal underwriting allows them to minimize their own risk), it actually raises the risk to human life.

People tell themselves, "After all, if this really was such a high-risk area for earthquakes, why are the premiums so low?"
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