It has become the worn cliché of our times to express one’s disbelief in the ineptitude and corruption of our government or its officials. The very idea that the government should aid its neediest citizens has become a nostalgic dream — a tail handed down from past generations. Two years ago this week, hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and surrounding areas. Our government was slow to respond and quick to blame. Two years later, after issuing billions of dollars for reconstruction, not a single one of the 115 critical projects identified by local government has been completed.
Conservative ideology has always been set on proving that government is less efficient and more wasteful then the private sector. The Bush administration went out of its way to accept this ideology and make it true. Instead of supplying funds to New Orleans, or municipalities it funneled money to large contractors like Halliburton early on believing that large private sector firms were more competent and appreciative then local business could be. The result has been a disaster for the people of New Orleans. Money has been moved away from public services like education, subsidized housing, and health-care and into charter schools, planned developments, and private hospitals. Instead of letting the people of New Orleans decide what the priorities of rebuilding were, this administration let the market decide. Some people have pointed to this as evidence of a conspiracy against the poor and middle-class of Louisiana, but there is no conspiracy: it is merely incompetence and greed.
The idea that private enterprise is more efficient that government has been accepted as gospel since the days of Ronald Reagan. It has never been true. Private enterprise is inherently corrupt – it has to be. It’s primary goal is not to deliver goods or a service, but to generate profit whatever way possible. Within that marketplace the only reason private enterprise delivers any quality of goods or services is due to competition and regulation. Conservative ideology was taken in by the notion that the larger and more successful a company the more competent it is. But when the government issues a massive contract there is no competition; the is no reason for the company to deliver goods or respond to the needs of citizens, and larger companies are inherently better at generating profits then delivering services.
The people of New Orleans are ready and capable of rebuilding their city, but this government, and its cadres, have withheld financial support. The people of New Orleans continue to suffer today because this administration is determined to prove its ideology of a low-tax privatized empire. It is beyond time that we recognized that this ideology is a failure, and return to the idea of a government for the people.
One Comment
It has occurred to me that perhaps one of the reasons for letting New Orleans die was an effort on the part of the PTB to merely see if they could let a city die, and get away with it. Kinda looks like they did.