My Wife the Political Economist

A few weeks ago we had a meeting with our insurance agent, where my wife demonstrated the logic of a political economist:

Agent: How do you feel about earthquake coverage?
Me: Have we had earthquakes in Bloomington before?
Agent: We have had earthquakes in Bloomington in the past, but they have all been very minor and haven't caused much, if any, damage.
Me: What do most Bloomington residents do?
Agent: I am rarely able to sell this coverage.
My Wife: Then if a earthquake is so big that it actually damages our house, then it will damage so many uninsured houses that the government will bail us out.

Superb, just superb. I almost never discuss any economics or political economy with her. Here I was hoping to get at some crowd wisdom while thinking about availability heuristics. My wife, as usual, provided the more relevant analysis.

My wife is also a excellent behavioral economist (see here and here).