FEMA's generator reimbursements flowed to wealthier pockets
[...]
Randy Cohen, who writes a nationally syndicated column on ethics, said there's a bigger picture to think about.
"If we all agree that we want public money to be for people that truly need it, then the ethical question we should ask is why FEMA has such a boneheaded program," Cohen said.
"If this was Japan 75 years ago, these people would have to commit suicide. They would feel honor bound," Cohen said from New York. "It's dishonorable to do this. But it is a petty transgression compared to what routinely goes on. If you're going to make a fuss, then you need to make a fuss about the people that are making 100 times that a day."
Randy Cohen, who writes a nationally syndicated column on ethics, said there's a bigger picture to think about.
"If we all agree that we want public money to be for people that truly need it, then the ethical question we should ask is why FEMA has such a boneheaded program," Cohen said.
"If this was Japan 75 years ago, these people would have to commit suicide. They would feel honor bound," Cohen said from New York. "It's dishonorable to do this. But it is a petty transgression compared to what routinely goes on. If you're going to make a fuss, then you need to make a fuss about the people that are making 100 times that a day."
posted by TheFuriousGourmet | 5:38 AM
2 Comments:
I don't think that FEMA should be bashed too much. They're not perfect, but they're all we (in Florida) have got.
I went thru Hurricane Wilma and went 12 days without power. The hurricane really bashed my neighborhood. It cracked concrete utility poles in half and piled up power lines and uprooted trees like some bizarre spaghetti.
After the hurricane, I walked out aside and said "Oh shit. We are not going to have power again any time soon."
But as a condo-dweller, I can not use a generator. There is no place for a generator in a condo or apartment, and it's also a fire hazard.
So by definition you're going to have an income bias, since wealthier people generally live in homes, rather than condos and apartments.
I actually find generators to be extremely annoying and somewhat un-necessary.
A few days after the hurricane, when all the home-owners had bought generators, it was like being surrounded by 5000 lawn mowers.
I managed to get by on candles and a cooler.
But the worst thing about generators is that they scarf up all the gasoline in the area. For a week after the hurricane, gas lines were literally a mile long.
And it turns out that a large part of the reason for the long lines were just people keeping their stupid generators going. Generators scarf up a huge amount of gas.
It seems to me that, post-hurricane, gasoline should be somehow limited to people who need it for transportation, rather than people who have to have a generator so that they can watch TV and keep their refrigerators going.
But actually, I don't have too much to bitch about. FPL did a magnificent jog of getting the power back up. There were utility guys from all over the country down here working 16 hour days and sleeping in tents.
Thanks for writing Jack.
I love to Bash FEMA, but only since Bush absorbed it into the do nothing but waste millions of dollars in tax payer money department of homeland security.
I think the real issue is FEMA left all those black folk on rooftops with no food or water, yet managed to reimburse wealthy floridians for generators.
While empty trailors still sit in LA, anything else FEMA does is damn near a moot point.
Their priorties are kinda fucked up, in other words, Jack.
Hope you survice the next one down there, Jack. From what I read they will keep getting worse, these storms, and more frequent.
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