From Home Insurance to Hostages - Top 3 Takeaways – November 10th, 2023
- When what’s presented as bad news is mostly good. There’s a general rule that comes into play when it comes to buying insurance when you have a choice. If you can afford to replace it, you shouldn’t insure it. And based on the type of insurance that’s true for fixing, rebuilding, etc. Anyway, the reason is very simple. Do insurance companies want to sell you insurance because they’re eager to lose money? Of course not. That fact of the matter is that self-insuring where possible is statistically almost always in your financial best interest. Rather than paying premiums to an insurance company so they can invest your money and reap the returns from those investments...you can do it instead. And a record number of Floridians are choosing to do so. A story yesterday came with this headline: Rising cost of home insurance shows alarming trend: an increase in owners not insuring their homes. The story goes on to say: The rising cost of home insurance has prompted some families to leave Florida and also led to an increase in homeowners deciding not to insure their homes, citing the high price of premiums. According to research conducted by the Insurance Information Institute, 12% of homeowners across the country don’t have insurance. In contrast, 15 to 20% of Florida homeowners don’t have insurance, meaning they are willing to take the risk against hurricanes and other hazards. Well, what that means is that approximately 3% to 8% more Floridians are generally making better financial decisions than the average other homeowner. The story goes on to interview those in the insurance business, which as one might expect, paint a picture of how concerning the trend of self-insuring is. If someone is selling insurance, what would you expect them to say? Yes, affordability challenges due Florida’s insurance crisis are real. But at the other end of the equation is the value proposition. As home insurance policies rise in cost, the value proposition for those who’ve paid off their home diminishes. In Florida only 56% of homeowners have a mortgage, a figure that’s 5% better than the national average. This means that only 56% of Florida’s homeowners must have property insurance. That close to half of those who don’t have to carry property insurance have opted not to isn’t bad news. It’s great news that far more Floridians have their homes paid off than those in other states. And it’s not the least bit surprising that close to half of those who don’t have to carry property insurance aren’t carrying property insurance. It’s most often a sign of smart financial management by those who are able.
- You know what would spring hostages and prevent future ones? Winning the war which is something President Biden appears to know nothing about. The Israel-Hamas war, just like the Russia-Ukraine war is already a byproduct of President Biden’s weakness. Ironically, as the Biden Administration is attempting to pressure Israel into a “three day pause (read cease fire)”, in exchange for 10 of the greater than 200 hostages held by Hamas, it was a hostage exchange with the terror sponsor behind Hamas that provided the green light for Hamas’ terror attack in the first place. The $6 billion freed up for Iran by the Biden Administration in exchange for five Iranian hostages wasn’t just a sign of weakness which green-lighted the Iranian-backed Hamas terror attacks in Israel October 7th, it was also the green light for a strategy employed by Hamas. What is the stated objective of Hamas? As cited in their charter: The Islamic Resistance Movement is a distinguished Palestinian movement, whose allegiance is to Allah, and whose way of life is Islam. It strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine. Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it. Palestine is an Islamic land... Since this is the case, the Liberation of Palestine is an individual duty for every Moslem wherever he may be. The day the enemies usurp part of Moslem land, Jihad becomes the individual duty of every Moslem. In the face of the Jews' usurpation, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised. so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement... Those conferences are no more than a means to appoint the infidels as arbitrators in the lands of Islam... There is no solution for the Palestinian problem except by Jihad. So, if according to Hamas, there can be no peaceful solutions, only the elimination of Israel, and the Jewish people within it...why is it that they massacred as many people as they did during the attack, while also taking hundreds of hostages with them during the attack? Because they knew just how weak Joe Biden is and...
- That taking hundreds of hostages represented the best opportunity for them to win in the end. Early on in this war I said this fearing the Biden Administration would do exactly what they’ve been doing in negotiating with terrorists: Letting Israel Do What Needs to Be Done...It’s easy for those who’re far removed from Israel to talk about the need for peace, to call for a cease-fire. It’s easy for many to look the other way when their actual neighbors here at home openly support “the Palestinians” which are governed by choice, by Hamas. It’s Hamas that started this fight, it’s Hamas that’s stated Israel has no right to exist. It’s Hamas that says there’s no peace. Simply stated they’re pure evil. And all who support it in this country or anywhere around the world flatly support pure evil. This world must have the stomach to allow Israel to do what needs to be done. Which means that regardless of the reporting, regardless of the brutality, regardless of the horrors of war that will doubtlessly emerge, we as a society, must remain strong in our support of Israel. You win wars by killing as many of your adversaries as is necessary for the war to end. This is what Hamas knows. This is what Iran knows. This is what Benjamin Netanyahu knows. President Biden’s very existence as president continues to make this world less safe. But his policy continues to only make matters worse. If Israel quickly and decisively wins this war the world is a safer place because a massive terror organization would no longer be around and because the message would be sent about what happens to bad actors. The way to potentially free hostages and the way to prevent future hostages is to win the war. Negotiating with terrorists is never the answer. But for President Biden and his Administration, it’s the one they continue to go back to. Here’s to hoping Bibi, who’s a real leader, tells Biden to pound sand.