printA Staten Island resident who lost it all in Hurricane Sandy could be heard demanding, on Huckabee’s Fox News show, that the government fix the shoreline. If it does that small thing, she and her plucky neighbors would gladly rebuild.
Yes, Uncle Sam, roll back the sea for the good lady, will you?
Another Huckbee guest complained that FEMA aid and private home insurance did not cover the cost of a new home. Kick in the difference, will you, Unckie Sam?
“Where I am going to spend Christmas?! Where do I put decorations up? Where do I put a Christmas tree up?”, demanded a gentleman who attended a FEMA town-hall meeting in New York, earlier this week. A neighbors chimed in, complaining that the lion’s share of the help she has received—and the only assistance matching her needs—came from her neighbors.
This you bemoan? Is it not a lesson for you?
Pundits soon turned to the question of suing the Federal Emergency Management Agency. And most agreed about the “wisdom” of “governmental immunity,” intended to “stop people from suing the government and government employees and officials in many cases.“
Indeed, legislators have used their position to pass laws exempting themselves and many others from liability. (In the event that you sue the state, guess who pays? We The People.) And the people want more of this corruption? (They will soon get doctors who can’t be sued.)
Let’s see: The victims described are surprised to have received close to no assistance from an entity whose employees are impervious to litigation, and immune from public shaming or loss of employment.
FEMA “victims” are surprised to have received the finger from an entity which is fortified by failure. The more a government agency fails, the more likely it is to receive more taxpayer funds.
In the bureaucracy, incentives are always inverted. Failure results in success: in more funds, more training, more time off. Failure will never see the closing of a government agency, or the firing of nasty, inefficient, over-paid, affirmatively appointed official.
These victims (and all those who demand from government what it cannot and will never give) refuse to comprehend that because of its very nature—a system without the imperatives of private property—government will never allocate or conserve resources efficiently.
Why on earth would anyone seek to interact with such an entity? (I have a good ideas why.)
UPDATE (Dec. 5): Predictably, Gov. cozy-up to Obama, cap-in-hand Chris Christie is on board with the mindset described. Two days ago he “announced that he has formally requested federal approval of 100% reimbursement for state and local government costs associated with debris removal and emergency protective measures that continue in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.”
Who said local was best? Not this big, fat ponce, to whom re-election is everything.