Posted by
RightChuck on Thursday, October 09, 2008 5:00:00 PM
I said back when the hurricane Katrina mess was going on that we would regret how it was handled. The liberals, with the assistance of the liberal media and a cowering Republican party, let the notion take hold that the Federal Government was responsible for paying to fix all that ails us.
I am not hinting we should not have helped them, I believe we should have. But we so over-reacted that a sense of entitlement was developed. Since then, anyone with a bad time has looked at the feds for a bailout.
I realize this sense of entitlement was not invented then but it seemed to really come of age during this period. We now have a country full of people that believe they are entitled to have the federal government help them for every bad decision, every twist of fate, every wrong, real or perceived.
Live in a city built 20 feet below sea level and have it flood during a hurricane? The government will pay to fix things.
Build a house along a river that floods every year? No problem, the feds are there for you.
Build a large metropolitan area 100’s of miles from any reliable water source? That’s okay, lets just use federal grants to pay for shipping water in.
I do not want to seem heartless. I believe that if we are to be a civilized society, it is incumbent upon us to be compassionate to others and lend a helping hand. This is one of the things that make America a great country.
I do feel though that we need a dose of common sense occasionally. Why do we build expensive homes along rivers that flood continuously? Why do we have a city that is below sea level and stays dry most of the time more from the grace of God than man’s ingenuity? Or, why do we build cities full of people in a desert? The more relevant question is, why do we keep paying to rebuild these places? Why do we pay for more cities in the desert?
My other issue, and possibly a solution, is to let local funds pay for these things. Go ahead, build that city in the desert, but pay for shipping in the water with local funds. If we develop this system of financing, guess what, we won’t be building many cities in the desert or in flood plains.
This isn’t intended to let people suffer, it’s intended to use our funds more logically. It is the ultimate in free market economics. If it is fiscally sound to spend funds to build a city along a flood plain, someone will do it. This seems more rationale than doing it just because we can squeeze into a spot at the public trough.