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Politics : A Neutral Corner -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (231)	9/18/2005 5:40:03 PM
From: Constant Reader	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2253

I was thinking about different posts (yours, mine, and others) and was just starting to respond to one you wrote to someone else when I discovered this reply, so I think I'll answer this one instead. I oppose subsidizing economic decisions in a way that discourages people from moving on. I've thought a bit more about this and I'll have to concede your point for two reasons (maybe three ;-): announcements about massive reconstruction and rising up from the sludge will give too many people a false hope that everything will return to the way it was (except it will be cleaner and newer) when the old days will never return (I hope), and our unfortunate tendency, no matter what the disaster, to want to put Humpty Dumpty back together again just exactly the way he was before (but a little safer, with a seat belt perhaps) forces me to admit that the kind of "reconstruction" I am willing to support is highly unlikely to be the kind that actually happens. (The cynic has overtaken the optimist this afternoon.) Another problem we are going to hear much about, I am afraid, is the use of eminent domain. It is unfortunate that the Kelo decision was so recent. The parts of New Orleans that were not submerged are some of the most expensive parts of the city. The poorest sections suffered the most damage. If the powers-that-be act even remotely rationally, large sections of the old city should be declared uninhabitable. This will require the use of eminent domain, I think. Then the question of valuation rises: is the property worth what is was worth before the flood or is the property virtually worthless?