School and Recovery from Katrina

Sorry for the dearth of posts. I've been super busy with reading and writing for school. My first assignement (summary of each book in the New Testament) is about 1/3 complete. I just finished Philippians. Johana Manly's "Bible and Holy Fathers for Orthodox" is proving to be indispensible.

About Katrina Recovery. I have heard that the president wants to spend billions of dollars of federal money on rebuilding the gulf region. I think this is a mistake. Landowners still have their land. Let them mortgage it and rebuild. Or let them sell to others. But don't force me, a Californian to rebuild New Orleans. ( I don't hate Louisiana. One of my fave singers is from there. And so is the other one.) And how is the federal government going to decide what gets rebuilt? What gets demolished? Is a bureaucrat with no interest in what happens in Slidell 10 years from now going to be put in charge of rebuilding Slidell? How will a state relief worker know better than a property owner what a piece of property needs? Sure rebuild the port, ports, bridges, canals, levies, roads... public works are pretty much what governments do. But rebuilding private property? No way. Private is private. Public is public. May the two never mix.

And where are these billions of dollars going to come from? Will taxes be raised? Just stick a tube in me and syphon off a little blood. It would hurt less. Will bonds be issued? Please, someone look at that word: Bond. As in Bondage. As in slavery. Chain around the neck and work your fingers to the bone to pay off debt. But not just for us, no that isn't nearly good enough. We can sell 30 year bonds to enslave our children. Yeah. That's what we should do.

If the president is serious about spending federal money on Katrina relief, before one bond is sold or one tax raised, I want to see the Congress reduce pay for all federal employees by 10%.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau the 2004 U.S. government civilian payroll for March 2004 was $12,844,765,857.

Multipied by 12 months that comes to $154,137,190,284.

10% of $154 billion is $15.4 billion. I bet we could do some pretty good levy building for that much money.

Oh, I can hear someone now: "But we have to rebuild the oil refineries!"

No we don't. The people who buy gasoline can rebuild the oil refineries. That is the way markets work. All the government needs to do is get out of the way and let the market operate.
Oh, I can here somone now: "But we need to rebuild the public housing in a way that spreads the poor people out among the rich so we don't have concentrations of poverty." Don't make me puke. I lived across the street from public housing. I saw what goes on there. I've talked to the cops who dread patroling public housing. Here is an idea: Don't rebuild public housing but abolish zoning laws and let landowners build on their land. That whole supply and demand curve will make sure we have the right amount of housing at the right price.

For other regions around the country I have this advice: Turn all public housing into condominiums and let the residents decide if they want to live there or sell. Even make them exempt from property tax for a couple of years. Make them part of the ownership society. Turn them into capitalists. If they have moxie they will do well.