People don't prepare anymore
Well here we are a couple of weeks past the hurricane. First thing is that it is fully apparent that people did not take seriously the need for speed and decisiveness in the response. Chertoff is at least as culpable as Brown for the delays. It also shows that we need to take seriously disaster response. A troop of Boy Scouts could have done a better job. I know because I used to be a Boy Scout.
In the aftermath now we have some hard questions to answer. It is imperative for the federal, state and local governments to step in during an emergency like this. Now we have the rebuilding though. This is the point where what I am about to say will probably anger many. Most people are calling for massive amounts of money to be poured into the area to rebuild what has been destroyed. Money, I assume, that is suppose to come from the tax payers. In the old days people, usually, would save up money for a rainy day (hehe interesting irony in that pun). The idea was that you never knew what was coming so you needed to be prepared. Well now we have a big government that will "take care of us all" so we do not need to save.
It is one thing for people in a local community to voluntarily band together and help their neighbors. In this case it is even great that people from across the country are moving in to volunteer time and effort to help out. What is maddening is when people build in a flood plain in a town that is below sea level, and do not plan for the disaster that will inevitably come. That is just stupidity and childishness.
Now I know that I am not perfect and that I have not always had savings either, however I try to be self sufficient. I also would like others to try to. We need to foster an attitude change in this country back to the more self-sufficent mindset that people used to have. I can tell you why I know this is true. Many people reading this will say that I am insensitive to expect people to prepare, that I just do not understand thier plight. Well my wife and I have been through a number of hard times and we have struggled hard to get through them. There were times we got help from family, friends, and church members, but we also worked hard to move out of the problems and toward better days. Without that deep desire to do that we would never be out of the problem times.
Well now we will see tons of money going to help out down there, and to top it off the libs in congress will tell me how we cannot "afford" any tax cuts and will even have to increase the tax burden on the rest of us. Yeah right. Any excuse to take more of my money away from me. And to think that at one time the income tax rate was like a lowly 4%.
Well there you go.... some thoughts to chew on.
Hmmmm what title?!?!?!
OK, this is just a ramble. I first want to congratulate Larry on his progress on his diet and encourage him to keep up!! You are inspiration to others that need to diet by sticking with it.
Second, I am glad to see that the head of FEMA is now gone! I did not know until later on that this was a person that should never have been given the position. It is two totally different things to manage a regular business and to manage something like a relief agency. Not too many people can handle the pressure of the suddenly fast paced world of a relief agency. It is somewhat similar to the stuff I do in computers. There are times that we have to react fast and are under a lot of pressure to perform and to do it quickly. I have seen a lot of people make big mistakes hwen under pressure and get all nerved up and such. Bush replaced him with what sounds like a good choice, time will tell.
Well I am falling asleep writing this so I am going to make this short and try to write tomorrow night. I should be able to get on a little earlier tomorrow night.
Whatever happened ot saving up for a rainy day???
I was listening to one of the two financial gurus this morning that I regularly listen to (Clark Howard and Dave Ramsey) and I started thinking more about this hurricane thing. In the past my wife and I lived like most other Americans. If we wanted it we got it. We lived for the moment. We recently started to change our financial habits and become what most would call "old fashioned". We are trying to put money in savings, pay off all our debts, save for retirement, and live debt-free. It is a more disciplined life but also one that says "I will take responsibility for myself".
As we listened for the last week plus, one of the big things we heard was that many of the people that were stuck could not get out and now they HAD to rely on the government to get them out of trouble. Well if they would have saved, and lived more disciplined then they would not be in this position. I mentioned it to others this morning and they said that these people were poor. Well I was talking to a financial advisor early this week and he mentioned a couple that made a combined income of like $36,000 a year. Over the course of their lives they managed to save $1.7 Million for retirement. That is a lot of coin! And these people would be considered poor.
Well it is about time that we start following the lead of smart people like Dave Ramsey, Clark Howard, and others that are saying to save up and to live responsibly and not rely on others to bail us out all the time!
New Orleans and other stuff
OK, well I think that it is time for me to chime in on the whole Katrina/New Orleans thing. I suppose in a way it is following the crowd, but I have a little bit to say about it. By the way, I am NOT politically correct, so if you are easily offended then go somewhere else.
First, I want to mention someone who has become a good friend of mine, Larry. I have told him for a while I was going to write about him. He is what I would call a reasonable thinking liberal. For me to say that is a lot since I see most liberals as simply being reactionaries that simply follow their most recent emotion or the talking points of whomever is screaming in the media. Larry is thoughful and has a good handle on reality. Oh sure, we disagree probably more often than we agree, but you can have an intelligent discussion with him.
Today we were talking a little about this New Orleans (NO) thing. We are both in agreement that FEMA screwed up. I am sure part of it is for different reasons, but we both say they screwed up. We both do agree that they were way to slow in responding. I also think that they were way to controlling when they did respond. I do know that Larry should probably head up FEMA. He could do better than that burecrat that is running it currently!!!
That brings me to the major point that I have about NO. As I listen to the news with all the blame everyone crowd, all I hear is how the Federal government needs have done more. Queen Hilary said that the Federal government needs to always be the central controlling authority in all things. This is where I have major problems. The constant move toward a strong central government is scary and dangerous! I am all for decentralized government. That is why the Bill of Rights was created. Many of the founding fathers were worried about a federal government that would become way to strong. They had good reason for that feeling too. Rome was originally fairly decentralized. However, some of the heads of the political process found ways of starting to centralize power. That was the beginning of the end of a great civilization. We are following in the footsteps of Rome currently. NO should have asked for help from the Governor who should then, if needed, petition the President for help. The Feds should not simply move in on the situation at their whim.
Also, people are talking about how we should have made every one leave. This is America! If someone wants to be stupid and try to ride out a hurricane, more power to them. The government is not some parent that we need to ask permission any time that we want to do something.
I also think that if people want to rebuild NO on the current site then let them, however we should not be sending down tons of federal tax dollars for some people to rebuild a city somewhere that is below sea level right next to the sea. If the terrorists have any brains, and some of them do, all they have to do is wait a year until the rebuilding is done, and then with a few well placed bombs they can reflood the entire city, killing thousands and costing us billons of dollars again! How stupid!!!!
Well I am looking forward to tomorrow when I can talk with Larry about my rant tonight and see what he thinks. By the way Larry, hope your back is feeling better by tomorrow.
P.S. While all the liberal filthy rich actors are getting screen time crying about the injustice of it all keep in mind that it is the conservative religious people from the red states and evil corporations like Walmart that are pouring tons of money and aid and people into the area to really help and not try to just get some precious screen time. I am totally sick and fed up with millionares that talk about how we do not give enough but give just a small fraction if any of their money to help others. I am not seeing them selling their big cars and multimillion dollar mansions.
