The problem isn't with the welfare state, because America isn't one. Among all the countries in Western civilization that we like to compare us with America is the one that cares least about the welfare of the individual.
I suspect most of us would have acted like animals after a while if left to our own devices in a disaster stricken city. It's a typical American response to "shoot to kill" rather than address the cause of the problem. It's also probably cheaper in the short term and has the added benefit of thinning out the population of stupid, incompetent, lazy, drunken fucks in the public housing projects. It's a win-win situation.
Here's my response to that: Fuck the governor of Louisiana, who, from her dry safety in Baton Rouge, advocates a shoot to kill policy against people with no other means who help themselves to baby formula, bread and soda in an effort to stay alive.
Anyone who still denies incompetence at local, regional and national levels in connection with Katrina really hasn't been paying attention. Or they're just plain dumb.
The same goes for anyone who doesn't see the connection here with the racial divide America still is struggling with some 140 years after slavery was abolished. Imagine had this happened in Boston MA or Westchester County, NY. But it happened in NOLA, a city with 60% mostly poor, dumb, black crack heads. I'm beginning to see where Neil Young got his inspiration from.
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