Comments on: Hindsight Questions http://donklephant.com/2005/09/06/hindsight-questions/ Big Teeth. Huge Ass. Surprisingly Reasonable. Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:03:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: kreiz http://donklephant.com/2005/09/06/hindsight-questions/comment-page-1/#comment-2003 kreiz Thu, 08 Sep 2005 20:15:42 +0000 http://donklephant.com/?p=787#comment-2003 I told you so. From Prof. Daniel Drezner: "In the 3 years after 9/11 Congress distributed roughly $13 billion in homeland security funding to the states using a formula that redefines crazy: 40% of the funds went to every state, regardless of population or terrorist targets. Rural areas with no major targets got a disproportionate share of the funds, while the most likely terrorist targets, like Los Angeles, got the shaft. Note to self: move back to Kentucky soon." I told you so. From Prof. Daniel Drezner:

“In the 3 years after 9/11 Congress distributed roughly $13 billion in homeland security funding to the states using a formula that redefines crazy: 40% of the funds went to every state, regardless of population or terrorist targets. Rural areas with no major targets got a disproportionate share of the funds, while the most likely terrorist targets, like Los Angeles, got the shaft. Note to self: move back to Kentucky soon.”

]]> By: kreiz http://donklephant.com/2005/09/06/hindsight-questions/comment-page-1/#comment-1980 kreiz Thu, 08 Sep 2005 11:39:28 +0000 http://donklephant.com/?p=787#comment-1980 This is one of the more brilliant essays you've written. You ask the difficult question no one dares raise. Yes, we all want an effective government that anticipates problems and moves proactively. But at what cost? 9/11 is a classic example. A handful of cities are likely terrorist targets. The immediate federal response, however, is to send pork back to every remote place in the great US. Has Katrina blown away the Reagan Revolution? Will we now return to Hillary's version of LBJ's Great Society? I don't think so. We want a crackerjack government. But even if one existed, we don't want to pay for it. This is one of the more brilliant essays you’ve written. You ask the difficult question no one dares raise. Yes, we all want an effective government that anticipates problems and moves proactively. But at what cost? 9/11 is a classic example. A handful of cities are likely terrorist targets. The immediate federal response, however, is to send pork back to every remote place in the great US.

Has Katrina blown away the Reagan Revolution? Will we now return to Hillary’s version of LBJ’s Great Society? I don’t think so. We want a crackerjack government. But even if one existed, we don’t want to pay for it.

]]> By: jimbo http://donklephant.com/2005/09/06/hindsight-questions/comment-page-1/#comment-1930 jimbo Wed, 07 Sep 2005 09:34:27 +0000 http://donklephant.com/?p=787#comment-1930 Yes, that's the problem. It is hard to prepare for an unpredictable disaster. Many times people have been ordered to evacuate in the face of a storm that turned out to not have much punch. The TV stations underline this with shots of reporters standing in deserted streets while the wind blows. Yes, the flooding of NO had been foreseen, but not neccesarily as the result of a storm like Katrina. It was rational to order folks to ride out the hurricane at places like the SuperDome, but not rational to expect people to ride out a flood there. Those who stayed behind to ride out the hurricane made a rational bet that it would not be as bad as predicted. Maybe, just maybe, if they appoint a quality commission they will find that NO faced two disasters - first the hurricane, then the flood. Preparing for the first disaster exacerbated the second one. When the system had been neglected for 40 years, it is hard to believe that spending more money in the past 5 years would have made a difference in the condition of the levees. Yes, that’s the problem. It is hard to prepare for an unpredictable disaster. Many times people have been ordered to evacuate in the face of a storm that turned out to not have much punch. The TV stations underline this with shots of reporters standing in deserted streets while the wind blows. Yes, the flooding of NO had been foreseen, but not neccesarily as the result of a storm like Katrina. It was rational to order folks to ride out the hurricane at places like the SuperDome, but not rational to expect people to ride out a flood there. Those who stayed behind to ride out the hurricane made a rational bet that it would not be as bad as predicted. Maybe, just maybe, if they appoint a quality commission they will find that NO faced two disasters – first the hurricane, then the flood. Preparing for the first disaster exacerbated the second one. When the system had been neglected for 40 years, it is hard to believe that spending more money in the past 5 years would have made a difference in the condition of the levees.

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