A completely modest proposal: Rebuild the people who lived in New Orleans

New Orleans in ruins. And the Federal Government has largely ignored that fact.

Because building a city under sea-level and ringing it with protective earthworks is silly.

Anyone who builds a city where it is not safe?

They deserve what they get (Hastert – Sermon on the Mount).

I'm sure all of the Republi-cons who are now slowly shuffling over to this interpretation of reality are eagerly awaiting the destruction of Venice, Italy and Stockton, Ca just to name two cities in similar situations. Or not. Doesn't matter to me. Their focus on property damage is sickening and speaks of a lack of concern for humans.

What does matter to me is that we are supposed to be a nation and a nation at least theoretically looks out for its own. In New Orleans we haven't. Cleverer writers have noted the glacial pace of Federal response. Now the question is what to do?

I suggest we pay the people who have been wronged and destroyed by poor planning and non-existent response?

Everything, after all, has a money value. ;-)

So I did a little analysis.

The population of New Orleans was 484,674 or so. Prior to the flood. Take out the 10,000 or so the U.S. left to drown and you have 474,674 souls. According to the Census these folks were organized into 188,251 households. These are the numbers of the diaspora.

I propose the Federal Government should pay citizens for its lack of support of them.

So I looked at one-time money stolen from New Orleans and diverted to the war against common sense in Iraq (These numbers are far too small – Coast Guard reductions, removal of National Guard who could have protected the city, various other killed grants? I have no way to quantify them):

$ 21.5 million
Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project
http://www.swingstateproject.com/2005/08/katrina_proves.php

$ 71.2 million
New Orleans Corps Projects
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4200/is_20050606/ai_n14657367

$15 million
Lake Pontchartrain Shoring Project. http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001051313

You can see we're starting to talk real money. That's a total of $107.7 million dollars looted directly from the budgets that kept New Orleans safe. And then there's the ongoing war against common sense:

$177 million per day in Iraq

Perhaps we could just take a three-day weekend off from further antagonizing the entire Muslim world?

I'm not any kind of cultural relativist or apologist for any of the horrors of Islamic rulers – I'm just saying we can double up on the killing and pissing-off on the next Tuesday. These are, after all, highly trained soldiers, right?

So, using Wellornomics, the savings on the "day-off" on the war and returning the money Bush looted would add up to $638.7 million.

Cash it out and give it to the victims of our poor preparation and worse response. That would add up to only about $3393.00 per household, but given that the average household income in New Orleans is under $30,000 per year, that would be a substantial chunk. Certainly enough to live for the next few months, which is the kind of problem that refugees face.

I'd note that this is just an analysis for New Orleans, and in no way do I mean to slight people in Biloxi, Luling, or even the Brett Farve household. Some mathematician and intarweb researcher smarter than I (not difficult to believe) can do all the math for everyone else. If it comes down to it our chickenhawk leaders might need to forfeit one or two more days of their personal pecker-hardening overseas adventures. Surely that is a contribution worth making?

But it's time for those "compassionate" conservatives to step up and prove that their compassion can be showered upon those who don't live in oil-producing nations. And its time for them to prove their compassion can come from somewhere other than the barrel of a gun on an armored vehicle.

George?

George?