Mixed Economy, Mixed-up Politicians

Was in the Big Easy for a family Mardi Gras gathering and should have a good photo-blog of it when I have more time, which will probably not be until next week. Blogging this week may be irregular due to a busy schedule and out-of-town guests arriving Thursday.

***

Speaking of New Orleans, here's an article (annoying questions about ZIP, age, and sex required) about the recovery that unintentionally demonstrates what is wrong with our mixed economy.

In surprisingly blunt language Monday, three New Orleans City Council members said displaced public housing residents who are unwilling to work are unwelcome to return.

At a meeting of the council's Housing Committee, City Council President Oliver Thomas said that for too long government programs and agencies have "pampered" rather than improved lives. Consequently, former residents who don't want "to roll up their sleeves" are better off staying away, he said in remarks that generated murmured agreement from some members of the audience in the council chambers.

"We don't need soap opera watchers right now," Thomas said. "We're going to target the people who are going to work. It's not that I'm fed up, but that at some point there has to be a whole new level of motivation, and people have got to stop blaming the government for something they ought to do."

No "soap opera watchers", eh? Tough talk. The recovery ought to go swimmingly. Just like the immediate aftermath of the storm did.

The article goes on to say that although there has been no decision on whether to rebuild those of the city's notorious public housing complexes damaged by Katrina, some complexes are beginning to take residents back.

But Jarmon said they already are implementing changes to how residents are selected for the available permanent public housing. In the Iberville complex, for instance, about 400 of the 800 families who lived there before the storm want to return, HANO [Housing Authority of New Orleans] officials said. But all future residents have to comply with new entry restrictions. Officials said they include a background security check, which most former residents already had done, and a series of questions about employment history and prospects.

They dubbed the new wrinkles a "working preference" for future inhabitants. Basically, the questions center around pre-Katrina employment and post-Katrina employment plans.

Do you see the problem here? They're going to ask someone whether they "intend" to work before they put them back on the government housing dole. In the meantime, they're acting like popular, but ineffective high-school teachers feeding students test answers the day before midterms! "If you want to have free housing, say 'Yes' to that work intention question." Wink, wink. Tough words, but the message is clear: All you have to do is pay lip service to the idea of hard work in order to get public housing in New Orleans. What a way to rebuild!

In a fully free society, there would be no dole. There would also be no huge federal bailout of New Orleans. There would be no worries about louts coming back to town because they would have had to work to live there to begin with. They would have had a personal stake in (1) deciding whether to rebuild at all, and if so (2) the process of rebuilding itself. Also, they would already know that if they did not work, they would not have a home, whether or not they chose to return. They would not need to be told any of this.

As it is, Thomas, a politician who is doubtless himself wedded to the notion of dole on a much larger scale, namely, a federal bailout of New Orleans, is saying something that may sound good to small-government Republicans in Congress. However, it is actually a way to enable the welfare-state status quo. Oh, but I'm sure he "intends" to do the right thing. He said so.

The welfare state removes an important source of feedback by which one can guide one's actions: the consequences of those actions. And so it is that words lose their actual meanings, becoming instead a means of wheedling money from passing strangers. "Will work for housing" is words intended to empty your wallet. A more believable sound would be the that of a hammer hitting a nail over and over again. This gets results and doesn't cost me a dime. Note which was broadcast over national media and which I had to go to New Orleans itself to hear.

On the way home from New Orleans, my wife, who grew up in New Orleans, and I were talking about a couple of rebuilding plans we heard, and I pointed out to her that in past natural disasters, the victims themselves got together to do the rebuilding. In New Orleans, the recovery would involve the government every step of the way. I said, "This has the potential to be the most botched disaster recovery in American history." Her reply? "It already is."

A great way to bungle the recovery would be to rebuild the institutions of big government that demolished the work ethic of so many New Orleanians long before the storm hit.

-- CAV

Updates

Today: Removed two paragraphs. (Thomas later questions the need to bring back every resident. This sounds better than bringing back all, but it does not challenge the basic premise of the welfare state.)