|
Not the government, nor anyone else at the top thinks in terms of peoples feelings and empathy or even necessarily preservation of life. The government thinks in terms of numbers and only numbers. Of course we have the resources to have gotten those people out of there in two days but that's not what counts to the Fed. It's all about the figures. How much would it cost us to rescue X amount of people in X amount of time? How many rescue vehicles would be needed? The average person makes approximately $1 million in their lifetime. How much are these people worth? What's the average education level of these people? What's their average lifespan? Annual income? Potential income of offspring? How many electoral votes does the state of LA represent?
IMO, it's all about Opportunity Cost so to speak. How much would we gain by taking this action in this amount of time? Would we really loose much by leaving them there? Will we really look that bad if we leave them there for a week? Will people eventually forget? How easily can we give people something else to focus on in the coming weeks/months/years?
After measuring tons of figures, clearly they came to the conclusion that it wasn't worth it. The FedEx company sent it's jets down there to help with the rescue effort. That's really great but they shouldn't have had to. FedEx doesn't have more resources that the US Gov't. I think we may have even swooped down on Singapore faster than LA. Of course, it looks better to the rest of the world when we save ppl in other countries. I'd really like to see what they're saying, if anything at all, in world news... i mean BBC news, Japan news etc. I wonder what they're thinking, seeing this.
I wish American media wasn't so sensationalist about things so often. I heard someone on the radio say "None of the other countries are sending in aid to us because they all hate us thanks to Bush yadda yadda.." I think that if anything, other countries wouldn't put up aid because they know that we have the resources. It'd be like giving an extra hundred bucks to a billionaire. Moreover would we actually LET foreign countries send in aid? I think it would be quite embarrassing seeing British jets or Chinese watercrafts come in and rescue thousands of ppl from the US ... the US!!!.
In any case, it's just about statistical analysis when it comes down to government action. I can live with that, but it would be nice if they were upfront about how they operate. This way, the next time there's a huge disaster and people aren't helped, there won't be people walking around asking "How can The President be so heartless!?" because they'll already know the factors that go into whether or not the government is humane. So yeah, "what has happened to america?" I'm afraid I'll have to say "Nothing". It's always been this way, just with different scenarios and different time periods. It's a shame, I know but *shrugs* 
___________________
Awesome House Music Blog: http://thegoodmorningpost.wordpress.com/ 
|
