Melvin Ladousier: It’s not the federal government’s job to insure your property
Re “California House delegation asks anew for fire relief” (Page 6A, Dec. 2): We the people are not in the insurance business and therefore our taxes should not be used to provide money to homeowners and businesses affected by the wildfires. These homeowners and businesses have paid private insurance companies for fire insurance from the first day that their homes and businesses existed. Insurance companies should be made to cove all costs which they contracted to cover, and the insured must be made to bear the cost for that which they elected not to have covered.
It is not the responsibility of the federal government to supplement private citizen’s insurance. We have the Red Cross, Catholic Charities and a host of other voluntarily funded organizations to aid victims. If the federal government had played any role in causing the fire – war, misadventure, negligence, mismanagement of natural resources, etc. – or failing to promptly extinguishing the fire, my opinion would be different.
Melvin Ladousier, Merced
This story was originally published December 4, 2017 at 12:54 PM with the headline "Melvin Ladousier: It’s not the federal government’s job to insure your property."