Friday, September 8, 2017

Natural Disaster, Aid, Pork, and Political Agendas

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Texas just experienced Harvey, and as I write this Florida is about to experience Irma.  The results will be thousands, and perhaps tens of thousands, of lives forever altered, property losses measured in the billions of dollars, and a recovery cycle likely to take a decade or so.  I expect as a nation we will get through this, we will help each other, and it is fundamental to our nature to move from the bad to the better, and hopefully toward the good.  That said, we see in this and every disaster, the evil and greed of mankind manifest within individuals, corporations and the government itself.

It is for this reason I grieve.  We condemn the companies who will seek profit over compassion when they raise prices to suck the most out of those who are living in fear and panic. As we enter the recovery phases there will be insurance companies who will nickel and dime the insured until they give up in frustration, or the unscrupulous contractors flooding into the areas promising to help the victims restore their homes, but who are only interested in taking as much from the victims as possible.  These are all horrendous examples of man’s inhumanity to their fellow men, but they pale in comparison to the graft and greed we see in our politicians.

We expect the Congress and the President to work together to provide funds to those in need.  The house votes for $8 Billion (that is billion with a B), for initial relief for Texas (and maybe FL), the Senate doubles that amount.  Those who resist are called heartless SOBs.  I wonder how many politicians will pad their retirement funds from this taxpayer largess. 

Spending other people’s money is easy as long as you can take your cut.

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