In light of Hurricane Irene and the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, it’s worth reviewing Dr. Walter Block’s post-Katrina analysis from Loyola University in New Orleans.
Here I was, sitting in my office at Loyola University, New Orleans, where I teach economics, very busy doing what I take to be the Lord’s work, and something unlikely as a wind on steroids rends asunder my work and life. It presented denizens of New Orleans with a stark choice. Evacuate at great inconvenience and run the risk that the oncoming bad weather will veer elsewhere rendering such flight unnecessary, or stay put and brazen it out, and have to deal with flooding, lack of electricity, no air conditioning in 90-degree-plus temperatures, to say nothing of actually loss of life and/or limb, either due to the storm itself, or to the aftermath, including looting, flooding, and loss of law and order.
My own modus operandi, finely honed after spending almost half a decade in New Orleans, has been to wait until the very last minute, and then bolt out of there, tail between my legs, and then sit in bumper-to-bumper traffic. For Ivan, I crept to Baton Rouge, a trip of a little over an hour in ordinary circumstances, in nine hours. For Katrina, I left home early Sunday afternoon (8/28/05) inched up to Vicksburg in eight hours, which would usually take a little over two hours. Then, I went on up to Little Rock, my previous stamping ground (actually, it was Conway, a town of about 50,000, which lies about 30 miles northwest of the capital of Arkansas), and from there to Vancouver by plane.
I am now safely ensconced in western Canada, writing up the notes I took en route. Happily, I escaped lightly, without too much inconvenience. But my heart goes out to those who were very much less fortunate.
What has this to do with political economy, the usual subject of my writing interest? A lot, that’s what.
I. Private Enterprise
First of all, the levees that were breached by the hurricane were built, owned and operated by government. Specifically, by the Army Corps of Engineers. The levees could have been erected to a greater height. They could have been stronger than they were. The drainage system could have operated more effectively. Here, the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board was at fault. It consists of three main operating systems: sewerage, water, and drainage. See here, here and here. Had they been, a lot of the inconvenience, fright, and even loss of life undergone in this city could have been avoided.
the rest HERE