RRC Archives

Somebody wrote:

"Too bad it's full of poor black folk or maybe Bush wouldn't have slashed flood control and levy maintenance for the city for the last four years."

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The idea of there being poor people in New Orleans is ridiculous. The way I hear it, they all have waterfront property and a swimming pool in every yard.

the looting seems trivial in light of the circumstances and sadly reflects people's preoccupations with essentially valueless goods rather than the inherent selfishness of humankind. i think it far more disturbing that police were redirected from saving people to saving commodities.

it seems the misdirected material values of looters are shared by the state.

lots of failures across the board, the people we put in local and state offices need to have more talent than being able to smile at free dinners

tbwilsonky wrote:the looting seems trivial in light of the circumstances and sadly reflects people's preoccupations with essentially valueless goods rather than the inherent selfishness of humankind. i think it far more disturbing that police were redirected from saving people to saving commodities.

while i agree to some extent, what do you say to the people who have lost their home, their car, everything they own, and now all the assets in their family run business are gone because everything's been looted? they're screwed by it all. the looting probably helps the franchises like walmart and such the most because they can absorb the impact of theft by spreading it across the board while the small company owner takes a direct hit and now he's out of money and out of luck.

medicine is an essentially valueless good until it's administered. those stolen items are, in themselves, essentially valueless until they represent the only source of income for a family of eight. protecting those goods is humanity.

We are a nation of whiners.

Zspider wrote:We are a nation of whiners.

that's mostly what I've seen on the tv for the past week...

Zspider wrote:We are a nation of whiners.

we are a nation of overgeneralizers.

Zspider wrote:We are a nation of whiners.

Yeup. "Help me, I'm drowning and trapped in my attic!" whiner! "I'm dying because I have no insulin." whine, whine, whine "I'm being raped and stabbed!" tiniest violin ever. wusses.

did anyone watch that clip where the news guy was helping the Officers (or some other enforcement...I can't remember which) and they came upon a house with a really overweight lady in it...that couldn't walk? There was a man with her (can't remember if it was husband/son/brother or what) that wouldn't leave her side....they first tried convincing her that she needed to let the Officers help her get out of there and to a shelter...her reasoning for not leaving, "They just wanna take my house and my land and I ain't gonna let em!" Can you believe that? She actually thought that this was a set up from the government just to get her property (hmmm wondering if I'm starting to believe it) ....anyways then they turned to the guy that was with her and tried to convince him...he wouldn't leave without her...somehow they got them out...(sorry that was a run=on sentence )

Paul3eb wrote: while i agree to some extent, what do you say to the people who have lost their home, their car, everything they own, and now all the assets in their family run business are gone because everything's been looted?

Still. In a crisis, given a finite amount of resources and time, you must decide is it 'better' to save one family's life or another's financial well being. Include the potential contingencies such as business insurance, which we can both agree functions very differently than life insurance (as in you can't get your life back), and I don;t think the choice is very hard.

those stolen items are, in themselves, essentially valueless until they represent the only source of income for a family of eight. protecting those goods is humanity.

Value is certainly relative to income level, but what I was trying to point out is that value changes in the midst of crisis. My iPod is valuable, sure, but if there is a fire in my home, I'm getting my wife, my animals, and I'm getting the f**k out - you can always replace stuff.

And finally, while I agree that the protection of people's material interests is a humane indeavor, it is hardly comparable to that of, say, saving humans.

tommy