Hurricane Katrina

Thanks to the media and the leftists, it is now folklore that Hurricane Katrina was the reason New Orleans was flooded and partially destroyed. Few people seem to know or care to remember that hours after the hurricane passed, New Orleans was relatively calm and unscathed. It was after the hurricane that the levies broke. The levies were a crucial part of the New Orleans infrastructure — built, owned, and managed by the government. The levies had not been kept up properly for years. Had they instead been in private hands, run by a profit-seeking entity, they would have likely been newer and stronger, and capable of withstanding foreseeable stresses.¹⁴⁷

In any case, New Orleans should not even have become a major city, but instead remained a small port. Had the government not been involved, New Orleans would not have grown to the size it was. This is because, due to hurricanes and flooding, most people would not have chosen to live there because the risk of having their property damaged or destroyed was too great. Because of the high risks, property would have been either prohibitively expensive or uninsurable all together. But instead, both state and federal governments subsidized flood insurance and other disaster insurance.¹⁴⁸ In other words, homeowners and businesses were encouraged to build in dangerous places they otherwise wouldn’t have because the rest of the nation paid for their losses or potential losses. Now, due to problems which have arisen from this, congress is actually considering increasing the subsidies.¹⁴⁹ Additionally, people who don’t have insurance can increasingly rely on retroactive government emergency aid money to bail them out. This is yet another example of wealth redistribution and the destruction of wealth.