Not to brag, but...
Two weeks ago, I talked about the incredible amount of money being spent by the federal government on Katrina relief. There is no better use of our federal monies than to help those families in the Gulf Coast who lost everything. In that post, I focused on the large sums being spent and how that money (if distributed fairly and evenly) could go a long way in bringing about economic and social change. However, my contention was that realistically, the billions would probably be mismanaged and wasted. It would never make it into the hands of those that needed it most. A story just came over the AP that confirms my fears. Millions are being wasted and those that were left destitute by the storm will remain destitute. Katrina money is finding its way into the hands of con men and other unscrupulous characters.
This is the first of what will probably become a flood of similar stories. The only cases of fraudulent activity to make the papers will be the ones that get caught. Imagine the quasi-legal and government-sanctioned fraud that we will never hear about. I really wish that I had been wrong about this.
Two weeks ago, I talked about the incredible amount of money being spent by the federal government on Katrina relief. There is no better use of our federal monies than to help those families in the Gulf Coast who lost everything. In that post, I focused on the large sums being spent and how that money (if distributed fairly and evenly) could go a long way in bringing about economic and social change. However, my contention was that realistically, the billions would probably be mismanaged and wasted. It would never make it into the hands of those that needed it most. A story just came over the AP that confirms my fears. Millions are being wasted and those that were left destitute by the storm will remain destitute. Katrina money is finding its way into the hands of con men and other unscrupulous characters.
This is the first of what will probably become a flood of similar stories. The only cases of fraudulent activity to make the papers will be the ones that get caught. Imagine the quasi-legal and government-sanctioned fraud that we will never hear about. I really wish that I had been wrong about this.
posted by adelino @ 12:50 PM
1 Comments:
At 2:21 PM,
adelino said…
Thanks for your dedicated reading and participation, adelina2. If The Water Cooler ever becomes an international phenomenon, you can say, "their old stuff is way better."
As far as the Katrina money goes, I'm not really patting myself on the back. My post wasn't supposed to be some eerily astute prediction. Maybe I got off topic at the end. My original intent was just to illustrate what you could do with the kind of large sums that our goverment will be pissing away. Everybody (particularly the geniuses who read this blog) already knows that it will be pissed away.
As far as your last line about the money being used the way it was intended, I think that's probably mostly true. We need to start questioning the government's intentions and priorities for using that money. Is their intention to provide long-term life changes for the homeless folks in the 9th ward? Or is the intent to help people in the order that they appear on the Gulf Coast RNC (and DNC) donor list?
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