It's very difficult to calculate exactly how incompetent and negligent our government is, but US District Judge Stanwood R. Duvall thinks he has the answer: $719,000.
That is the amount he awarded a small group of Hurricane Katrina flood victims last Wednesday who sued the Army Corps Of Engineers, citing its "insouciance, myopia, and shortsightedness," and its "gross negligence." Duvall argues that Katrina was not just an act of mother nature, but a man-made disaster at the hands of the Army Corps of Engineers.
He's right. Before the hurricanes hit the Gulf Coast, there were numerous accurate predictions and warnings about the dangers that the Corps' flimsy levels posed; they were ignored, of course.
And why should they have cared? They had no incentive to protect the coastline or build strong dams since it was not their property to begin with. There was no market based profit-loss mechanism for them to gauge the consequences of their actions, and as long as the levees appeared to be sturdy, all was well.
But then they broke, and we all know what happened next. It wasn't the actual hurricane that caused all of the deaths and property damage, but the results of the crumbling government infrastructure that wreaked havoc on New Orleans.
When the government bridges broke, they had no way of getting cranes in and no way to make repairs. Then the guns and nightsticks came out, and 10,000 people were herded into a football stadium. That's when some of the worst (but mostly unreported) atrocities began.
Everyone entering the Superdome was subject to a search, and if found with a firearm, it was quickly confiscated. Under the orders of the thoroughly corrupt New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, the New Orleans Police and National Guard, the Oklahoma National Guard, and U.S. Marshalls began kicking in doors at gunpoint to confiscate lawfully-owned guns from private citizens.
This Soviet-style gun-grabbing had predictable results: the strong preying on the weak, the increase of crime, and all of a sudden a manageable natural disaster turns into a bloodbath.
What the disasters of Hurricane Katrina represent is the inherent trouble with "public services." When the state is in charge of property, it encourages a negligent attitudes of even the most obvious of risks. There is no real stake in the outcome of development and the government can not properly make proper economic decisions since its source of revenue is not the voluntary exchange of goods and services (the market), but the levying of taxes (theft).
But can the market really provide infrastructure and protect people against hurricanes, floods, fires, etc.? Absolutely. There is a growing industry dedicated to protecting property owned along coastlines that is addressing the threats of natural disasters infinitely times better than government can. It's not perfect, of course, as no human function can be, but it is a far more effective (and far more moral) way of handling crises.
Justice Duvall has asked the federal government to compensate some of the victims of Katrina for good reason. We can only hope the next time disaster strikes in this country, the government will just get out of the way.
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This article originally appeared in SF's (d)N0t blog.
Comments
Unfortunately the guilty party will pay the penalty with money it steals from its victims and others. Until guilty individuals who work for government are held personally accountable there will be no justice.
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