Lert me be clear

The damage done by Sandy is a natural disaster.  It is accepted – or was until yesterday – that aid for that sort of thing is automatically given.  I agree with that.  Supporting people in time of need is part of living in a community and it makes us a stronger nation to do so.

So how do I equate that with other forms of government spending?

Natural disasters are sudden, unexpected and devastating.

So are catastrophic illnesses, disabling accidents and illnesses and monumental job loss that happens because bankers decided to roll the dice and crashed the economy.

All of these things, the personal and the natural disasters, are not the result of things that the people who fall victim to them have done.  Neither is being unable to get rich.

To be consistent, people who oppose government support for these latter problems should be telling the victims of Sandy to just suck it up and get on with their lives and pay for the recovery themselves.

Infrastructure – building, streets and utilities – are only part of a community.  Disaster relief pays to rebuild these things.  But without people there is no community, no society, no country.  Help that keeps people alive and fed and healthy is just as important as repairing a building after a hurricane.

Somehow politics allows asking for and using government money to rebuild a city but not using it for rebuilding lives.  It’s all tax dollars.  There isn’t a magic source of money for disaster relief, but there does seem to be magical thinking that lets people feel compassion and outrage for victims of flooding but not for victims of life.

That is the hypocrisy.  The victims of natural disaster are seen as innocent, but the victims of a unbalanced economy are seen as somehow complicit.  These decisions should be about how to help people not how to get more votes.