The government agencies had incentives to act as they did including the benefit of receiving massive credit for being the only organization that helped the post-Katrina victims. The government would also receive the benefit of a great opportunity to publicize to the citizens the good deeds they were doing to the post-Katrina victims. Another incentive is that the government was not ready to incur the cost of having other people in charge example the Red Cross and church organizations. They hold responsibility for maintaining order, they can arrest or even kill someone in circumstances surrounding the rescue, but a representative of the private organizations cannot perform such things without recrimination.
The inept response of FEMA and other agencies could be the result of bad ideology (as Paul Krugman claims) or it could be because of the lack of critical immediate response. .According to Edward (2005) the government did not delay in taking action after the disaster, but their actions worked against and not for the rescue operations. The government had made the necessary pre-disaster planning; however the post-Katrina event had its own unique set of problems. The evaluation of the rescue operations should have been done on the ground, allowing making of important and informed decisions. However, this was not the case and the people on the ground who had firsthand information were left out of decision-making.
The government had the desire to receive all the credit for rescuing the victims therefore anybody that would offer any competition and share credit had to be stopped. The means to achieve this was to keep private organizations away example Wal-Mart had brought a truckload of bottled water, which was turned off by FEMA officials, declaring that it was "not needed." The government desired to show the political constituents that they were concerned about the public good. Therefore, government services were performed for the public through many press conferences and photos of government officials from President to mayors, governors, FEMA and military personnel all working for the victims. Edward (2005) agrees that the government has its own set of priorities which it protects at whatever cost, he continues to explain that in the case of Katrina, government and FEMA did not have rescuing the citizens of New Orleans as a top priority. .
The emergency medical workers had a desire to communicate to the public what they had experienced firsthand. They would have the benefit of showing who helped most and who mistreated and neglected the victims. They therefore narrate to a great level of detail the ordeals they faced at the mercy of the government and the invaluable help the working class of New Orleans including maintenance workers, nurses and food service workers offered the victims. The church and other private organizations including the Red Cross desired to offer whatever help they could to the victims, however one cannot rule out that they would benefit from shared credit for helping the victims.
Work Cited
1. Katrina and the Never-Ending Scandal of State Management
Mises Daily: Tuesday, September 13, 2005 by William L. Anderson
2. The US Government did not fail its Mission in the wake of Hurricane Katrina
Analysis by Edward Griffin September 30, 2005
