http://www.stanley2002.org/crockett.htm
I had cause today to refer someone to the link above. It is a book excerpt quoting Davey Crockett from when he was a U.S. Congressman from Tennessee on the limits of governmentally funded charity. I find it inspirational and wish modern politicians were more like him.
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That's an interesting speech by Crockett, and a popular one. I found it replicated 345 times across the web. One of the more intersting places it appeared was in a template for building political campaigns at Campaign Site Builder which offers easily constructed websites to would be politicians for "just $24.95/month or $197/year."
That doesn't impugn the value of Crockett's story, which makes a good point. I believe that government exists to allow us to act collectively in situations where we cannot be effective as individuals. Protecting our national borders is an obvious example.
I am less convinced that disaster relief is as obvious. As Crockett pointed out, however, people often do not act individually to relieve victims, who may be incapable of helping themselves. Many victims of the recent tsunami lost all they had, including the infrastructure needed to survive. The scope and nature of the problem cried out for focused intervention.
Could the NGO's have done it? Probably. What would it have cost the nation within the world commnity if we had not contibuted as a nation? Should that matter? It should not, but probably would have.
Should we disband FEMA and leave disaster aid to private charity when the hurricanes inundate Florida or California falls into the Pacific? In a rational world, yes. Would you, personally, want to rely on the rationality of our citizens? I, for one, am dubious.
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