FEMA/was Re: [extropy-chat] Fill it in a pave it over

[BillK]

On 9/6/05, Technotranscendence wrote:
> FEMA is part of the problem.  Here's a blast from the past on them:
> http://www.mises.org/freemarket_detail.asp?control=213&sortorder=articledate
> 
> and, especially, here:
> http://www.mises.org/story/227
> 
> Part of the reason this is so is because the costs of living in these
> places have been made artificially low by government intervention.
> Creating a "disaster recovery army" will only increase such incentives.
> 

Mises have the luxury of being able to criticize everything as they
don't actually have to do the job. As all opposition parties well
know. The vote-catching slogans soon change if they get voted into
power.

I am no great supporter of FEMA, but they do seem to have been
virtually crippled by Bush since 9/11.  (An action mises would
presumably have supported??).

See:
<http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-fema5sep05,0,685581.story?page=1&coll=la-home-headlines>

September 5, 2005  	
KATRINA'S AFTERMATH
Why FEMA Was Missing in Action
# Most of the agency's preparedness budget and focus are related to
terrorism, not disasters.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency once speedily delivered food,
water, shelter and medical care to disaster areas, and paid to quickly
rebuild damaged roads and schools and get businesses and people back
on their feet. Like a commercial insurance firm setting safety
standards to prevent future problems, it also underwrote efforts to
get cities and states to reduce risks ahead of time and plan for what
they would do if calamity struck.

But in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, FEMA lost its
Cabinet-level status as it was folded into the giant new Department of
Homeland Security. And in recent years it has suffered budget cuts,
the elimination or reduction of key programs and an exodus of
experienced staffers.

etc......

BillK