Katrina and the welfare state

From PhiloWiki

What role did the welfare state have on the aftermath?

Liberal views

Conservative views

• An Unnatural Disaster: A Hurricane Exposes the Man-Made Disaster of the Welfare State, Robert Tracinski, The Intellectual Activist

"...this is not a natural disaster. It is a man-made disaster.

The man-made disaster is not an inadequate or incompetent response by federal relief agencies, and it was not directly caused by Hurricane Katrina. This is where just about every newspaper and television channel has gotten the story wrong.

The man-made disaster we are now witnessing in New Orleans did not happen over the past four days. It happened over the past four decades. Hurricane Katrina merely exposed it to public view.

The man-made disaster is the welfare state."

• Grew Up in the Projects, Fed Up with Democrats - Rush Limbaugh.com

"[Caller:] How the African-American people are not outraged knowing that their best buddies in the world, the Democratic Party, ran Louisiana for 60 years and allowed 75% of the black population in New Orleans to be 50 to 60% unemployed and these are their best buddies in the world that's going to do everything for them, and the horror I saw on that TV, and I'm an African-American, was unbelievable. That party -- because I left the plantation years ago -- that party was supposed to be the best buddy of the African-American and I guarantee you, Rush, it's not just in Louisiana. There's pockets of people like that all over this country that the Democrats -- I bet you those busses was running on election day. I guarantee you that."

• The State and the Flood - Lew Rockwell

"No one can escape the influence of a prevailing ideology," wrote Ludwig von Mises, and Gulf Coast residents know precisely what it means to be trapped—ostensibly by a flood but actually by statist policies and ideological commitments that put the government in charge of crisis management and public infrastructure. For what we are seeing in New Orleans and the entire Gulf Coast region is the most egregious example of government failure in the United States since September 11, 2001.

Mother Nature can be cruel, but even at her worst, she is no match for government. It was the glorified public sector, the one we are always told is protecting us, that is responsible for this. And though our public servants and a sycophantic media will do their darn best to present this calamity as an act of nature, it was not and is not. Katrina came and went with far less damage than anyone expected. It was the failure of the public infrastructure and the response to it that brought down civilization."