Where is the money going???

[DrPizza]

over 60 billion dollars in hurricane relief now... not to mention all the money, food, clothing, etc. that people are donating.

Let's do some math.
Assume 1 million people affected long term (lost their houses)

60 billion = 60,000,000,000
or, 60,000 per person, using 1 million as the number who are homeless.

Most homes aren't inhabited by only 1 individual...
For the average family of 4, they could receive nearly a quarter of a million dollars.
Rather than repair the infrastructure, you could easily relocate every family for that kind of scratch.

Now, don't forget, this ignores insurance money! (except federal flood insurance, I think)

Now, some of you may argue that it costs a lot to build a house, because it costs a lot in your locations. Where I live, a brand new home, particularly the size of a majority of homes in NO, can be built for well under 100k. Much of the cost in many locations (i.e. Cali) is simply for the location.

Why is it taking so much money for the Katrina victims?

 

[Engineer]

The estimated cost is over 200 Billion. Not sure where it's going. I know where it's coming from though....borrowed money. Deficits...deficits...deficits...as nobody wants to cut spending in other areas to make up for this. Actually, several want more tax cuts for area stimulation. (similar pattern to the last few years: Spend more...bring in less)

 

[1EZduzit]

That's a good question and I can't answer it. How does one find out exactly what this money is being used for. I'd sure hate to see it all wind up lining corporate pockets instead of going to the public good.

 

[CaptnKirk]

There's this company called Halliburton, who's CEO is on loan to a sock puppet . . .

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: CaptnKirk
There's this company called Halliburton, who's CEO is on loan to a sock puppet . . .

I'm not interested in "help friends get rich quicker scheme" ideas for where the money goes...

After things that are covered by insurance, which should have been covered by insurance, I wonder where the rest of the money goes. Although, I'm sure, you're correct that a good hunk will be seen as profit by mega-corporations.

Think about it. "We're sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, but you lost your home. Here's a quarter of a million dollars to move somewhere else." That would solve it, and probably ultimately cost less.

 

[Stunt]

It's not just homes; gov't buildings, schools, infrastructure (roads, power, water, sewer) are all needed to rebuild the city.

 

[Stunt]

Moving mass amounts of people would create a huge load on the already crowded cities. Imagine more traffic, kids in school, load on power, etc

 

[Engineer]

Originally posted by: Stunt
Moving mass amounts of people would create a huge load on the already crowded cities. Imagine more traffic, kids in school, load on power, etc

But one has to wonder how many would return to N.O. anyway? As seen on local news, many have moved to areas (using the kindness of strangers to get them back on their feet) and have said that they intend to stay in the new areas. Many may end up moving out without a dime of government money.

 

[DrPizza]

If I'm not mistaken, and perhaps I was glued to the wrong channels on television and the wrong sources of information on the internet, but it seems to me that the biggest problem was NO. Shortly after Katrina passed, everyone breathed a sigh of relief that the city was spared; then the levee broke and the city *slowly* filled up with water. I'd bet that after the water is gone, the roads are still going to be there. I cannot believe that it's going to take billions to replace the rest of the infrastructure (electric grid.)

 

[Engineer]

What I'm curious about is since when did the goverment rebuild an entire city? I'm not saying that they are going to, but 200 Billion estimated costs seem to suggest an entire rebuilding of something. I've seen assistance offered after floods and even massive flood control projects, but not to this extent. Throw in billions of insurance and your thread has a huge valid question DrPizza. Very good question indeed.

Makes one wonder just exactly was in the emergency spending bill by DC, doesn't it? Pork in there too?

 

[1EZduzit]

Originally posted by: Engineer

Originally posted by: Stunt
Moving mass amounts of people would create a huge load on the already crowded cities. Imagine more traffic, kids in school, load on power, etc

But one has to wonder how many would return to N.O. anyway? As seen on local news, many have moved to areas (using the kindness of strangers to get them back on their feet) and have said that they intend to stay in the new areas. Many may end up moving out without a dime of government money.

On the local news the other night they had a young mother and her boy who moved to our humble state. She was at the superdome and she had lost everything and didn't know what she was going to do. She was talking to a total stranger and mentioned she had family here. He bought her and her boy a plane ticket here.

I don't know about you, but for me that story kind of tugs on the old heartstrings.

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
over 60 billion dollars in hurricane relief now... not to mention all the money, food, clothing, etc. that people are donating.

Let's do some math.
Assume 1 million people affected long term (lost their houses)

60 billion = 60,000,000,000
or, 60,000 per person, using 1 million as the number who are homeless.

Most homes aren't inhabited by only 1 individual...
For the average family of 4, they could receive nearly a quarter of a million dollars.
Rather than repair the infrastructure, you could easily relocate every family for that kind of scratch.

Now, don't forget, this ignores insurance money! (except federal flood insurance, I think)

Now, some of you may argue that it costs a lot to build a house, because it costs a lot in your locations. Where I live, a brand new home, particularly the size of a majority of homes in NO, can be built for well under 100k. Much of the cost in many locations (i.e. Cali) is simply for the location.

Why is it taking so much money for the Katrina victims?

Public property, roads, street signs, clean up, a massive staff of people, all kinds of things.

 

[DrPizza]

I try to avoid knee-jerk reactions. I think the 50 or so billion after the initial 11 billion was more for political reasons than anything. That, plus the average American really has no idea how much money that really is. A billion is a THOUSAND millions. This is 60 THOUSAND Millions.

 

[1EZduzit]

Originally posted by: Engineer
What I'm curious about is since when did the goverment rebuild an entire city? I'm not saying that they are going to, but 200 Billion estimated costs seem to suggest an entire rebuilding of something. I've seen assistance offered after floods and even massive flood control projects, but not to this extent. Throw in billions of insurance and your thread has a huge valid question DrPizza. Very good question indeed.

Makes one wonder just exactly was in the emergency spending bill by DC, doesn't it? Pork in there too?

That's the bill that got passed without the democrats seeing it, wasn't it?? If it's full of pork, then we know how to blame.

Are we paying for rebuilding corporate infrastructure? What is driving the cost so high?

 

[DrPizza]

Please don't forget, when considering this enormous amount of money, how many damages are actually going to be paid for by insurance. And, if gov't is going to bail out insurance companies every time a disaster comes, then I want the government to buy everyone in the Northeast a new snowblower so we don't have to manually shovel out our driveways to make it to work to pay taxes to support the people who live in areas with year-round nice weather, but get hit with disasters.

 

[johnnqq]

the entire city is gone! giving each person xx amount of dollars doesn't make up for the economic loss- NEW ORLEANS.

 

[1EZduzit]

Originally posted by: johnnqq
the entire city is gone! giving each person xx amount of dollars doesn't make up for the economic loss- NEW ORLEANS.

Not really. Check out these photo's:http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=52&threadid=1685395&enterthread=y

 

[DrPizza]

n/m

 

[imported_Condor]

Here we start!

 

[Engineer]

Originally posted by: Condor
Here we start!

 

[trenchfoot]

pardon the redundancy- isn't the gao tasked with overseeing how the funds from the fed gets distributed? if so, and because our tax dollars are being used, shouldn't these expenditures be on the public record? for that matter, how trustworthy is the gao anyway? has their abilities been gutted out like many other federal agencies that get in the way of "progress/profit"?

you'd think there were lessons learned from the accounting fiasco that halliburton et al created in iraq that we'd watch more closely how our tax dollars get ripped off err,... spent rebuilding NO.

 

[dahunan]

Originally posted by: tweaker2
pardon the redundancy- isn't the gao tasked with overseeing how the funds from the fed gets distributed? if so, and because our tax dollars are being used, shouldn't these expenditures be on the public record? for that matter, how trustworthy is the gao anyway? has their abilities been gutted out like many other federal agencies that get in the way of "progress/profit"?

you'd think there were lessons learned from the accounting fiasco that halliburton et al created in iraq that we'd watch more closely how our tax dollars get ripped off err,... spent rebuilding NO.

Bush probably put the GAO under authority of Homeland Security