Summary
President Biden announced the federal government will cover 100% of costs for initial disaster response to the Los Angeles wildfires for 180 days.
The funding includes debris removal, temporary shelters, and first responder salaries.
Biden declared a major disaster, allowing immediate aid access, and directed the Pentagon to assist with firefighting resources.
With 28,000 acres burned, five deaths, and mass evacuations, Biden urged Congress to provide additional aid.
FEMA is coordinating recovery efforts on-site.
Proof that there’s always money from Uncle Sam to help the super rich.
There are plenty of people affected by this fire who are not super rich. Something like 1 in 34 Americans lives in LA County, IIRC, and most of them aren’t super rich. Yes the Palisades area is pretty affluent, but not all of the surrounding areas are. What’s more, the effort to STOP the fire protects everyone.
Besides, most of who we think of as rich in LA is nowhere near the level of the ultra-wealthy whose wealth we should be redistributing. The 400 richest Americans have over $5 trillion in wealth. A-list actors and directors and movie producers are a drop in the bucket in comparison.
The numbers in this are now out of date because it’s from 2021, but it’s still worth looking at.
Oh, I’m not opposed to stopping the fires. the best way way to do that is to tax anyone burning fossil fuels out of existence.
Yeah! Don’t hate the people who only have enough wealth to not work for the next several generations! There’s even RICHER people out there!
The median home value in the palisades is $3,485,831. That’s more than double the median lifetime earnings of an American.
And all of the money they have is still dwarfed in comparison to only 400 people. I’m not saying their wealth isn’t extravagant but most actors didn’t receive their wealth from exploiting millions of working class people.
Yeah, they only get their wealth at the expense of hundreds of supporting staff who make next to nothing in a predatory industry.
Actors are hella exploited too. Sure, someone who is living in a multi-million dollar home is likely to have “made it” such that they’re able to shield themselves from much of the exploitation that most actors face, but actors aren’t responsible for the industry being predatory. In many cases, they’re the saps that fell for the bait (I say this as someone with a few friends who are actors, who struggle to pay basic bills).
Two co-workers of my other half lost homes, one lost a family member too. They are service workers, I can assure you they are not rich.
Perhaps you prefer everyone gets nothing as long as it prevents the rich from getting anything too? That’s some republican level thinking - y’know, where no poor people get any help because a freeloader or two might get something.
I think the heart of the accusation is “initial” in the headline. We’re all seeing a repeat of bank bailouts, ppp loans, etc, where the bucket is going to run out immediately before anybody who actually needs it gets a drop, and everybody else is going to end up footing the bill.
The difference between your service worker friends and their ultra wealthy neighbors is that your friends will likely have their insurance claims denied, delayed and defended. Meanwhile the wealthy neighbors will cash in on their multi-million dollar art insurance on top of the housing insurance, even if they managed to have their servants sneak the art out in their spare bentley.
Then next year when your friends are still scraping by on savings the increase in premiums will come in so they can help pay for the payouts that went the rich.
If they are lucky they’ll get 80% of the value of the house paid out and nothing for belongings.
You didn’t answer the premise.
You prefer everyone get nothing in order to stick it to the rich?
Why even have middlemen that earn a profit for shareholders for property insurance?
My problem is with the system, not the little guys.
Is that your answer? So you’re saying you do prefer that no one gets any government help as long as it’s sticking it to the rich?
That’s what you take away from shareholders and property insurance? Those terms don’t seem to be government ones at all, whatsoever, today.
Maybe if the system was socialized or nonprofit instead of private it could be better, but people are too selfish/corrupt. The insurance industry profits greatly from the delay, deny, defend method and that’s the way it’ll stay.
You’re going through a lot of effort to dodge a simple question: do you believe that everyone should get nothing as long as it sticks it to the rich?
It should be easy to answer without changing the subject.
No, dumbass.