Ministry for the Future

The second reading is also excellent for me. What am I reading this week?

Last week, NPR highlighted a severe crisis in homeowners' insurance across the United States. This is not a localized problem limited to California, fire country, and Florida but a pressing issue that spans the entire nation. Insurance companies are grappling with the increasing challenge of underwriting policies, a situation that is directly impacting homeowners nationwide.

Right now, this year, storm damage and weather-related property disasters make insurance not just unaffordable but unavailable. This is a side effect of global warming. It was featured in Kim Stanley Robinson's book Ministry of the Future. What is different from the book version is that the death of insurance was expected in the future, but now, it presents a clear danger to our whole way of life.

You don't get a home loan if you can't insure the property. "I don't care; I rent," you say. The landlord won't be able to get insurance coverage on the property, and out you go to join the spiraling homeless population across the street. When banks can't sell mortgages, they don't make any money. They don't loan anymore. When the money stops moving, everything else shuts down. When money does not move, it has no value. Welcome to Mad Max World USA. We won't need Czar Bomba or a Zombie invasion to end our civilization. After a few more storms a year, everyone will live in a tiny home they made from whatever they scrounged together from the tribe's last raid across the street to the abandoned apartment building. Think 2008 with no bailouts.

I don't have a fix in mind; I am pointing out the need for high-value thinking cap time.