It is an old assumption by some. However, it is one of the most disproved one. I am not even going to try to disprove it. It has reached a point that it is a given. We have the spoiled rich kids of the millionaires repeated over and over. Even those who have less money will still try to buy the love of a child by giving him or her too much.
Then, one day they look around and wonder why their children don’t like them. Indeed, the parent frequently tells the child, haven’t I given you all you wanted?
The fact is, sometimes real love says no to the request, even when the child begs, pleads and threatens. I have seen that, with the outcome both ways.
Recently, however, I have come to the conclusion that kids are not the only ones who become spoiled. A full grown adult that should know better will beg plead and threaten. They will beg their government to take care of them. They will plead for the money, the healthcare, the homes, the phones and even housing. Then, when and if the government turns them down, they threaten to cast their vote for someone else.
It is of course, one of the greatest weaknesses of a government that must answer to the voters. It all started out well but over time, our nation has become continuously more socialist. You might find this strange, but at one time, the federal government did not provide aid for for disasters. It was handled totally by the state. I have no idea when that changed.
Eisenhower, when he wanted to build the great interstate system we have, had to figure a way to justify it. Up to that point, the federal government was not much into the highway building business. So, he justified it by saying it was for national defense. To do this, the interstates had to meet certain national defense standards that would allow them to be used for airfields should another war brake out. Also, something that made more sense, transportation for war supplies.
It was a horrible thing that happened to those trade towers, but some people really made out on it financially. Some people were given millions of dollars for their losses. I saw what was happening and I shook my head. If I got a million dollars, I’d be happy to let someone come and burn my house down. Well, to be sure, I would want to be well clear of it first.
However, some of those people in NY, NY became instant millionaires as a result of 9/11. Then, just a short time later, they had their hands out again because of hurricane. Me and people like me were working hard for our paychecks while those folks up there simply held their hands out and said gimme, gimme, gimme. And of course, if one dollar was withheld, the clamoring would start, “See if I vote for you next time!”
Nowadays, people build next to oceans, sometimes on cliffs. They spend millions on the property and millions on the house. Then, when a storm comes along, we hear, “Well, I couldn’t afford insurance you know. It was so expensive.” Do you suppose that the insurance is expensive for a reason. Maybe the lesson these folks need to learn is to build a little farther from the ocean or lake instead of counting on Uncle Sam to bail them out.
People are required to have insurance to drive cars. Maybe they should be required to have insurance to build houses on cliffs overlooking the ocean. The alternative is simple. You built there. You took the risk. You live with the results, no matter. We will come to the rescue for personal safety, but not to help you rebuild. I suspect there would be one big advantage to it. Many of the miles of coast that are now private would be turned back over to the public.
That which happened recently in Hawaii is a different matter entirely. They do need some help rebuilding, though we need to avoid overdoing it. The people there were hit by something that was completely unpredictable. One might even say that the government aggravated it. Certainly, if the government did have a part in the disaster, they should have a real part in the recovery.
However, people who live next to big bodies of water where flood damage can be reasonably expected, we should not pass out any more than what is needed to survive. There is no reason why the paycheck of some truck driver should have to be used to rebuild some millionaire’s beach home.
The particular bad part is that the federal government is very bad at dealing with disasters. Invariably, they pay 3 dollars to provide 1 dollar of relief. The rest. Some of it goes to the operation of the federal agencies. Mostly, a lot of it gets wasted. The trailers are brought in where tents would work. Tents aren’t that bad short term. I have lived in tents. It’s better than sleeping in the rain. Moreover, they can be moved in more quickly and they are reusable. The trailers will likely be scrapped. At the very least, reusable buildings should be used that can be quickly assembled and disassembled. I have no idea why this we don’t already do this. Just ask the builders of the steel buildings what it would take. Bet they would have good solutions. Oh! Wait a minute! I just figured it out why they keep doing it this way. We are the ones paying for it, not them.
And so it is, that we keep spoiling those hit by disasters. And so it is, that they are more and more dissatisfied. It is the one problem where governments answer to the voters.
As an aside, the interstate system was and is one of the best projects of the federal government. However, I still wonder how much money is never getting into the concrete and bridges. Nowadays, the engineers who plan the highways have a problem they didn’t even think about when the highways were started, the people going green. Getting rights of way are far more difficult today than in President Eisenhower’s day.
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