Quote:
Originally posted by Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)
Exactly. If you don't ban people from living there, there willbe political pressure to protect them and compensate them for their losses.
but I'm not saying ban people; I'm saying don't rebuild there at taxpayer expense. Some modest levees perhaps to protect reasonably protectable higher ground. But nothing more. And inform people that based on science/surveys/etc., that any place marked on this map in red is a place likely to have severe flooding every 5 years. Move in at your own risk.
As for those other places, sure. But it's impossible to make a credible political commitment not to help. Much as i hate the federal flood insurance program because it encourages settlement in flood-prone locations, its one saving grace is that at least the people have to pay a bit of the cost up front.
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I'm OK with compensating people to an extent for bad luck -- and this was partly bad luck. I don't think we should rebuild for them, though, there's the issue of putting infrastructure back in. Not sure to what extent the infrastructure is ruined as opposed to just needing to be cleaned up and put back into operation. I'm not opposed to helping people with temp housing until they get back on their feet somewhere else and/or everyone has a better idea of what's going on in NO.
