Disaster relief in the age of entitlements

From the blog GeoBandy:

Yes sir, I've just stumbled across my ticket to an early retirement on Easy Street!

For the reasonable fee of $250 per person (I'm not greedy) plus expenses (round trip fare) I'm going to charter buses in Cleveland, Ohio, and run them down to Houston so my clients can collect their $2000 government hand-out debit cards. I'll collect my fees and expenses from my clients, in cash, at the first ATM we see on the return trip.

Got proof of residency? "Washed away in the flood."

Got identification? "Washed away in the flood."

Somebody thinks this is a good idea. How long do you figure it will be before somebody actually implements my "early retirement plan"? Wanna bet somebody is already operating some variation of my plan? Wanna bet they end up giving out more cards than the total adult population of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama combined?

I remember when disaster relief meant somebody set up some temporary shelters, and you got a place to sleep, a shower, toilet facilities, and something to eat. Probably hot dogs, beans and macaroni and cheese, washed down with water or powdered drink mix.

And people were grateful.

Now we have people stampeding (according to an ABC tv broadcast this morning) and all-but rioting because they aren't getting their $2000 cash card fast enough.

I guess that's disaster relief in the age of entitlements. They figure somebody owes them something, as opposed to being thankful that somebody reaches out to help.

And for the benefit of those morons who want to turn Katrina relief efforts into a racial issue, let me point out to you that across the midwest, every year, hundreds, and some years, thousands, of folks are left homeless and destitute by tornadoes. Nobody rushes in to give them $2000 cash cards less than two weeks after the disaster. And quite frankly, most of them are white.