You asked about houses not infrastructure. If someone wants to pay outrageous insurance premiums so that they can rebuild their beach side home in Florida every so often, that is their deal. Rebuilding an entire city is a whole other thing. I just don't see the point in rebuilding when it will happen again. Like I asked before, how many times should we do this?
The economics of the port of New Orleans, the HUGE oil/gas industry in the area (which, incidentally, are some of the major reasons the wetlands have been sacrificed, thus allowing for erosion and subsequent mega-flooding) are monstrous. Arguing this from an economics standpoint is daft - if any place deserves to NOT be rebuilt following a hurricane, it's florida, not Louisiana. Hell, just the fishing industry in Louisiana outdoes any of Florida's "industries".
It's too much for private industry and it's in the national interest. Erie Canal, Transcontinental Railroad, Interstates... all and more are examples of the Federal government doing stuff private industry couldn't do alone and all are related to the transportation and the economy and all were done in the national interest.
In the republican's Opinion we should just give haliburton 100 Billion a year to run Iraq and then let them make profit off the oil too and of course No Over Site necessary . .cause that is regulation Rocket River
not to further bring this off topic, but if west had said bush doesn't care about poor and middle class people, i would have agreed with him.
People abuse all the "systems," all over the country. Are we supposed to write off one of the oldest, most historic and culturally significant cities in the country because of that? It would be a terrible mistake, in my opinion. D&D. NOLA Rocks.
Is there enough land available at higher elevations (say 5ft above sea level or so) in the greater New Orleans area to accomodate everyone needed to run the ports, and those who would provide those people with services? Could the ports be run from a city built a few miles away and just build a rail system into the flood zone to bring in the workers? It seems like there could be some way to use the ports without building another city in the flood zone.
i think as a general matter you are always more obligated to your neighbors and kin than someone far away. however if you ruin the lives of people far away you have an obligation to handle that. i think the blame n run strategy that this administration will employ within a year and a half will be morally worse than going into an unjust war. the powell pottery barn rule applies here. i understand the political reason behind this contention. frankly i dont think its a great one. however morally i can't support it. i just dont dig this dichotomy.
I'm torn both ways myself insane man. It's not really a mutually exclusive question though. Just some stupid thoughts running around the brain.
yeah and please dont take this as a rant against you. if anything it should make us all realize that this administration criminal incompetence in all of these areas. hopefully webb's big balls can be cloned and implanted into the rest of congress.
I think this is a great question. I'd probably be more ok with a situation like this than rebuilding NO as it was.
An indication of what? It doesn't indicate the intervention in Iraq is hurting the rebuilding of New Orleans.
Throwing good money after bad...there is no reason to still be spending money on NOLA...Move the city inland...In Iraq, you break, you buy...
I have read that the National Guard has only 30% of it's heavy equipment in the United States, the majority being left in Iraq for units rotating into the theatre. I would argue that that's an impact on national capabilities at home by the Guard. That's putting aside the manpower in Iraq. As for the impact on the national debt, Bush has clearly demonstrated that he doesn't give a good god damn about it, regardless of whatever BS he's currently spouting. His actions, or lack thereof, speak quite loudly enough on the subject. In short, I don't think spending enters into Bush's calculus, if he knows what the word means. D&D. Beware of Darkness.
The National Guard wouldn't be rebuilding New Orleans anyway. While that might have had an effect on the evacuation of NO, it doesn't have an impact on the rebuilding. And you're right that Bush doesn't care about the national debt, so that also isn't a tradeoff that is hurting NO.
If they were free to act on behalf of the state government, and had their equipment, I don't see why they couldn't be used to speed up the process. D&D. Water is Wet.
