How Big Government Feeds on Crises

It should come as no surprise that in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, proponents of Big Government at every level were milking the tragedy for all it would produce in terms of increasing their power.

Few opportunities are missed by career politicians and government officials to portray Big Government as everybody's Savior, to justify still more taxation to fund still more unaccountable, bureaucratic meddling in the lives of The People.

President Bush has said the "federal government" (read: all US taxpayers, whether willing or not) will foot the bill for "recovery" from Katrina.

[James Madison (Remember him?  Father of the Constitution?  Remember the Constitution?) in 1794 said:  "I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents."  It might surprise the likes of George Bush to discover that such an article remains conspicuously absent from that document.]

After Hurricane Rita had come and gone, "the authorities" wasted no time in awarding themselves incrementally more power over their subjects, in this case with a drive towards permanently controlling who may travel where and when.

As Rita approached the Texas coast as a Category 5 (out of 5) threat, on September 22nd and 23rd, the major freeways (and other roads) leading out of Houston quickly became parking lots, effectively quadrupling drive times to inland destinations like San Antonio and Dallas.  Cars overheated and ran out of gas -- and the fuel supply all but vanished.

Never mind that the stampeding herd had been conditioned to obey "government officials" whose warnings were hyped and re-hyped via every available media channel.  Supposedly unable to foresee, control, or prevent the inevitable and unfortunate consequences of their heavily broadcast (and, it turns out -- for many Texans -- false) alarms, those same "government officials" nevertheless hastened to assume control of all evacuees' return journeys, effectively saying:  "We accept no responsibility for our contribution to this mess, but y'all must trust us to dictate your travel options throughout the aftermath."

Rita's impact turned out to be far less than predicted for most of the Houston-Galveston corridor.  The worst was over by mid-morning on September 24th, with little more than intermittent light rain and wind gusts remaining as evidence of a hurricane in the Greater Houston area.  Both flooding and wind damage were far less than "authorities" had predicted.  So naturally, folks started driving back home.

But "the authorities" couldn't let it be that easy.  Instead, still side-stepping responsibility for the outbound traffic jams of just a day or two ago, they rolled out a "plan" by which they would control the timing of evacuees' return by region.  Their "plan" demanded that residents of each region return to the Houston area only on the specified day for their respective regions -- spread out over a 4-day period.

Never mind who could (or could not) afford to remain away for one, two, or three more days.  Never mind who had pressing personal, family, business, or property matters awaiting their attention back home.

No, the most important thing was that "the authorities" extend and exacerbate the crisis by exerting their power, proving that they could avert evil traffic jams, if only they are allowed to control who goes where and when.

What most folks will too quickly overlook in all this is that:  1) crises always have and always will generate troublesome conditions (with or without government involvement);  2) government never could and never will effectively avert every crisis -- especially where nature is concerned;  and 3) government's assertion of control after a crisis is little more than a thinly disguised drive towards increased power of government over The People ("for their own good, of course").

Forcing (or attempting to force) folks to return home according to a government-prescribed schedule proves only that "government officials" are capable of "solving" a problem too late to be of any genuine value, with a government "program" that is sure be less than viable, while increasing incrementally in the public mind the perceived "value" of more government control.

Short answer:  Don't do it -- it's a trick!

Thank Big Government for Katrina’s Mess

One of the collectivist soundbites found floating in the wake of the hurricane Katrina disaster was apparently "government is your enemy until you need it."

This bit of boilerplate propaganda coyly misdirects hearers' attention away from government's role in causing the New Orleans disaster, while brazenly suggesting government -- and not free-market action driven by genuine human compassion -- will somehow drive relief and recovery in the smitten region.

But truth matters here no less than elsewhere, and the facts -- when brought to full light -- effortlessly dispense with all the ideological spin of "the government" and its apologists...

How Government Made the Mess

First, let's resist the temptation to overlook government as the chief cause of the Katrina disaster.  The storm itself was a natural phenomenon, sure enough, but responsibility for the disproportionate level of flooding and damage lies squarely with unaccountable self-serving big government bureaucracies.

Setting aside any questions about the wisdom of building a city below sea level in the first place, New Orleans residents' protection from flooding has long been based on a system of levees owned and maintained by the US federal government's Army Corps of Engineers, "backed up" by a drainage system owned and maintained by the city government's Sewerage and Water Board.

Both systems failed:  Neither of the two government bureaucracies had anything to lose by doing an inadequate job.  Katrina didn't flood New Orleans -- it was some ten hours after the worst of the storm had already passed when the government-managed levees broke, overwhelming the city and its all-but-abandoned drainage system.

That there had been adequate (though unheeded) advance warning is well documented in a recent Newsday article and a warning published last year in National Geographic.

What had the Army Corps of Engineers done to prepare for such an event?  Apparently little or nothing.  What resources did they have on hand to correct the problem?  Again, little to none.  (This due in no small part to their resources having been redirected to support another US big government quagmire -- in Iraq.)

What contingency plan and resources did the municipal government have in place?  Suffice it to say that institution had all but relocated itself to Baton Rouge, leaving its drainage pumps to fail virtually unattended.

And what penalty will either of these two government bureaucracies pay for such negligence as to cost untold millions in property loss and damage and loss of life?  Again, little to none.

That's what is most troublesome about this tragic fiasco.  The public mind has been so conditioned to acquiesce to statist collectivism as a norm that government and media alike will blithely overlook big government's failure -- once again -- to do a decent job at something, facing no substantial accountability for the huge losses it has caused to those whom it pretends to "protect."

How Private Enterprise will Fix the Mess

Second, let's revisit the tired-but-perennial myth of government as "savior" (i.e., the "...until you need it" part of the collectivist soundbite mentioned above).  Please keep in mind the fact that government produces no wealth, property, or rights -- it can only do right by protecting them, or do wrong by confiscating and controlling them.  Kindly adjust your expectations accordingly...

Long before Katrina had finished her (minor) part of this catastrophe, such private enterprises as the American Red Cross and the North American Mission Board already had massive relief efforts underway, with enough infrastructure to provide comfort, shelter, and sustenance in many hundreds of shelters spread out among several states, caring for tens of thousands of people, serving over 100,000 meals per day.

No bloated branch of any American collectivist bureaucracy could have done half as much with anything less than twice the funds -- which is exactly why government can't (and won't) be providing much of the essential relief or reconstruction in the wake of this government-induced disaster.

And while the Army Corps of Engineers and the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board may be brazen enough to claim jurisdiction, if not ownership (yet still without responsibility), of the city's flood-prevention apparatus, don't expect anything but private enterprise to provide the bulk of the real cleanup in the wake of yet another case of criminal negligence at the hands of big government bureaucrats.

As a sideshow spotlight on US socialism at work during the same period, keep an eye on the largely self-aggrandizing deeds of FEMA and Congress -- done entirely with billions in "charitable" funds coersively confiscated either directly from the unwitting masses of the US collective, or indirectly through more national debt via the Federal Reserve system -- remembering that coerced "charity" (which is no charity at all) is socialism's parasitic substitute for genuine liberty and a voluntary, free-market, compassion-driven response to calamity.

The only folks who "need" that kind of government are those despots who control it.