Is Nagin determined to kill every last citizen?

[Metullus]

If I recall correctly the higher parts of the city were the richer parts.

The higher parts are the oldest parts of town since the first builders chose to build in the areas that were not under water.

After that we got all stupid...

 

[Jocko]

If I recall correctly the higher parts of the city were the richer parts.

So? What's your point? That the impact on the poor was premeditated, or that richer people could afford real estate that needed less bailing out every time it rained? What does this have to do with anything?

 

[geni]

So? What's your point? That the impact on the poor was premeditated, or that richer people could afford real estate that needed less bailing out every time it rained? What does this have to do with anything?

It is porbably the higher parts people may be moveing back into. These would be the people not liveing in shelters.

 

[Jocko]

"I would rather err on the side of conservatism so we would make sure we have everyone out," Mayor Ray Nagin said.

I think he means he'd rather be RIGHT on the side of conservatism for once.

Thank heavens someone put that dolt back in his box.

 

[BPSCG]

Exactly.

Manny - congratulations on the most common-sensical solution to what to do with NO.

You observe that the 200 billion would be $400,000 per person. That's per man, woman, and child.

So all FEMA has to do is count up the number of people in your family:

"Okay, there's four of you; here's a check for $1.6 million. Now, go move somewhere that's not New Orleans. Because we're going to do the cleanup next week at a cost of about ten thousand bucks; we're going to blow up all the levees. Lake Pontchatrain is going to be much bigger next week, and you probably don't want to be there when it happens."

 

[geni]

I think he means he'd rather be RIGHT on the side of conservatism for once.

Thank heavens someone put that dolt back in his box.

Come on you can do better than that:

"flip floper"

 

[Jocko]

It is porbably the higher parts people may be moveing back into. These would be the people not liveing in shelters.

But a minute ago you were talking about the POOR moving back in too soon. Now it's the wealthy.

It's just a guess, but good ole Mayor Nagin telling me, "Come on back, there's less than a 50/50 chance you'll be flooded out in the next week to ten days!" probably wouldn't be enough for me to move back just yet.

The least he could do is shut his yap until the end of hurricanse season. It's less than three months from now and they could really use the time.

 

[Jocko]

Come on you can do better than that:

"flip floper"

My point was, this is the first thing he's done in a while that doesn't reek of "erring," though it's the first thing he refers to as "erring."

This is known as irony.

 

[geni]

"Okay, there's four of you; here's a check for $1.6 million. Now, go move somewhere that's not New Orleans. Because we're going to do the cleanup next week at a cost of about ten thousand bucks; we're going to blow up all the levees. Lake Pontchatrain is going to be much bigger next week, and you probably don't want to be there when it happens."

More FEMA incompetance. Surly they can find someone to sponser the explosives or even hold a lottery on who gets to press the button. "ever had a hankering to destory a city? This is your chance. A just 1$ a ticket it could be you.

 

[geni]

But a minute ago you were talking about the POOR moving back in too soon. Now it's the wealthy.

No. The poor are mostly in shelters. It's the slightly richer who got out and ended up in hotels and friends/relertives houses that may be running out of money/good will.

 

[zenith-nadir]

I say we take a page from Papua New Guinea... Rebuild New Orleans on stilts...or drain the oceans...either one works for me..

 

[Jocko]

No. The poor are mostly in shelters. It's the slightly richer who got out and ended up in hotels and friends/relertives houses that may be running out of money/good will.

Yeah, they "may" be. But as I've said three times already, there's no indication that this "possibility" has a "rat's ass" to do with anything.

 

[Ed]

Can we all agree that it is good thing that this incompatant is black incompatant rather than a white one? That eventuality would keep Jesse going for another 30 years.

 

[shemp]

Manny - congratulations on the most common-sensical solution to what to do with NO.

You observe that the 200 billion would be $400,000 per person. That's per man, woman, and child.

So all FEMA has to do is count up the number of people in your family:

"Okay, there's four of you; here's a check for $1.6 million. Now, go move somewhere that's not New Orleans. Because we're going to do the cleanup next week at a cost of about ten thousand bucks; we're going to blow up all the levees. Lake Pontchatrain is going to be much bigger next week, and you probably don't want to be there when it happens."

Hell, give my wife and I $800,000 tax-free, and we'll be happy to move away with the clothes on our backs and let you bulldoze the house and everything in it!

Seriously, the idea of compensating people NOT to come back is a good one and would save money, but $400,000 per person seems ridiculous. A lot of these people had nowhere near that much per person in personal property. It's fine to compensate them based upon what they had to leave behind, but why should we give $400,000 to some bum, drug dealer or street thug? Compensation should be on a case-by-case basis, based on what was lost and what it will take to get them back into a comparable job.

 

[jj]

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by manny
Think about that. We could cut the cost in half if we just gave a check for $200,000 to each family and told them to spend it as they chose. Some would supplement it with insurance money and rebuild. Maybe some of the public-housing-no-cars-lost-everything-had-nothing-to-begin-with people would take $200,000 and chose to build themselves a new life somewhere else instead of having the government build them a new crime-ridden craphole below the water line, only this time on stilts.

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Ok for some reason I'm haveing a hard time finding a problem with this.

Likewise.

 

[Metullus]

Likewise.

Biggest problem I can see is that $200K is likely way more than the average loss per family.

 

[geni]

Biggest problem I can see is that $200K is likely way more than the average loss per family.

Probably but anyone who has lost more than that is likely to have insurence (and if not why not).

 

[Metullus]

What I meant to suggest is that a minorty of folks would have lost anything close to $200K. If $200K was paid out to folks in Slidell who lost everything they would likely be making a windfall. A lot of the houses lost were in the $90K to $110K range.

 

[Manny]

Biggest problem I can see is that $200K is likely way more than the average loss per family.

Ah, but that's the beauty of it. We can vastly overcompensate every dislocated family and still save $100 billion from the current proposed plan. And those overcompensated families would make their own rational choices of how to spend the money, meaning that it would be spent more efficiently than if the government sets up some complicated pork-laden system for the money. It ties right directly into Bush's ownership society theme, and he should eat it right up. It's a direct handout from mostly rich taxpayers to mostly poor non-taxpayers, so the Democrats should like it on redistributive grounds. It doesn't give money to businesses, so Democrats should like that, and it tells businesses to go out and generate more business by buying appropriate amounts of insurance so Republicans should like that.

I'm liking this more and more. Fix the public infrastructure (roads, etc.), hand out the rest on a per-person or per family¹ basis regardless of prior need and bank the savings. None of this crap with Georgian veteranarians getting money because their well-heeled customers didn't need to board their precious poodles because they're scared to fly to the Bahamas.


¹: In fairness, I should reiterate that the amounts are per family, so there wouldn't be $1.6 MM available for a family of four. However, if one wanted to rejigger it so that, say, families got $75,000 per adult and $50,000 per kid up to three kids or whatever I'd be OK with that.

 

[shemp]

Of course, you know why this won't happen. There's nothing in it for the big corporate contractors. Rebuilding will <strike>line the pockets of rich contracting execs</strike> create jobs!