2006-08-30 13:04![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
digitaldiscipline
digitaldisciplineSomeone on ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ikilled007's journal asked if I had any ideas for getting things less-fucked in New Orleans. Dovetailing nicely with today's screed from The Rude Pundit....
http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2006/08/new-orleans-has-no-future-once-he.html
As a matter of fact, I do have a few. Having the streets cleared of debris would be a good start. Basic infrastructure, anyone? That, last time I checked, was what taxes pay for during calm times anyways, nevermind during a tumult.
I am rather skeptical that all records of property ownership and insurance would be lost; especially the latter, since many insurance agencies are headquartered elsewhere, and ought to maintain records. "This policy covers this location for this person." Cross-check with utility bills (also, in all probability, maintained elsewhere; Entergy is not a small entity), and you have a fairly strong case for Person X living at location Y. Tax records would be on file with both the City of New Orleans and the State of LA (conveniently, the capitol is in unflooded Baton Rouge), further providing ownership documentation. Federal Tax documents, social services records... all of this shit wasn't stored exclusively in the flooded slums of New Orleans, and even the most monolithic bureaucracy could have correlated this information in 360 days with minimal provocation unless it was actively ignoring it or otherwise motivated to do otherwise.
I agree that people (and their insurance policies) should take financial responsibility for getting their shit together; however, there are substantial parts of what, by all rights, are considered the public domain, that have been completely ignored... if that isn't the government's job, why do we pay taxes? Oh yeah, to finance wars nobody but the administration wants, to push a narrow theological agenda, ad infinitum.
ikilled007's journal asked if I had any ideas for getting things less-fucked in New Orleans. Dovetailing nicely with today's screed from The Rude Pundit....http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2006/08/new-orleans-has-no-future-once-he.html
As a matter of fact, I do have a few. Having the streets cleared of debris would be a good start. Basic infrastructure, anyone? That, last time I checked, was what taxes pay for during calm times anyways, nevermind during a tumult.
I am rather skeptical that all records of property ownership and insurance would be lost; especially the latter, since many insurance agencies are headquartered elsewhere, and ought to maintain records. "This policy covers this location for this person." Cross-check with utility bills (also, in all probability, maintained elsewhere; Entergy is not a small entity), and you have a fairly strong case for Person X living at location Y. Tax records would be on file with both the City of New Orleans and the State of LA (conveniently, the capitol is in unflooded Baton Rouge), further providing ownership documentation. Federal Tax documents, social services records... all of this shit wasn't stored exclusively in the flooded slums of New Orleans, and even the most monolithic bureaucracy could have correlated this information in 360 days with minimal provocation unless it was actively ignoring it or otherwise motivated to do otherwise.
I agree that people (and their insurance policies) should take financial responsibility for getting their shit together; however, there are substantial parts of what, by all rights, are considered the public domain, that have been completely ignored... if that isn't the government's job, why do we pay taxes? Oh yeah, to finance wars nobody but the administration wants, to push a narrow theological agenda, ad infinitum.
