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A California Mega-Flood Could Change Everything
- dredmorbius 8y agoNot mentioned in this otherwise excellent and comprehensive article is the likely outcome of dumping hundreds of thousands if not millions of displaced climate refugees on a state which has found it impossible to find either temporary or permanent housing for just a few tens of thousands in the firestorms of recent yearss. Extreme housing shortages, reflexive NIBYism to the most modest of density and new construction proposals, and land costs and use which have driven many into the most vulnerable floodplains, would make this or numerous similar widespread catastrophes (fire, earthquake, possibly tropical storms striking the Southland San Diego - Los Angeles region) utterly catastrophic to many in California, leading mass to a exodus ... to where, exactly? The US as a whole would be burdened to cope. Apart from the meteorological, topographical, and engineering challenges, the practice of treating real estate as a financial asset rather than an essential societal infrastructure may come back to bite and hard. Land tax could address both the housing crisis and shortfall, as well as much of the funding requirement for disaster preparedness. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_value_tax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_value_tax