Is it just me, or (with the exception of voting to elect one's preferred candidate), do we have pretty much NO say in where our tax dollars go? I ask this because it continues to absolutely *astound* me that after each and every damn devastating hurricane in this country, time and again shit is rebuilt in places where people have NO BUSINESS rebuilding (e.g., on a flood plain, on the fucking EDGE of the ocean and on the sides of ever-eroding cliffs, to name a few) and guess who foots the bill for that shit?
Yep, you and me, Average Tard Taxpayer. Since our tax dollars are continually pissed away in mind-boggling and downright evil ways (hi, colossally imbued with FAIL financial institution - Uncle Feddy doesn't mind if you totally fucked up, have this nice, fat sack of money! Heck, our entire infrastructure, our healthcare system and things even remotely related to education are in absolutely stellar shape, so really, what else were we going to do with all of this shwag?) why aren't we given a voice in things? Why do we simply take it in the nether-regions from the government, and are wholly excluded from the decisions as to where that money is allocated?
For the people who have lost their homes because they were unfortunate enough (insert any other adjective of your choosing there - I was trying to dial down the vitriol...), there should be be two options and only two options if you want assistance. Either you accept federal funds on the non-negotiable condition that you rebuild / relocate elsewhere (to say, I dunno - somewhere NOT below sea level / not on the cusp of an eroding cliff / NOT "protected" by lame-assed piles of dirt / NOT on an active seismic fault line, etc.) OR you take the federal funds and you rebuild in the same idiotic spot, but you get ONE chance. Rebuild on the same patch of reclaimed sea-floor and get hit by another storm? Tough shit. You had your chance. My tax dollars should NOT be paying for your stupidity or ignorance more than once. You had your chance to do something different, but you chose the insanity route (doing the same retarded thing and expecting a different result). Additionally, places like the gulf coast, places at the mercy of these ridiculous man-made "levees" (dirt heaps, now with more reinforced rebar goodness! That oughta stop that silly little 642 TRILLION gallons of water from demolishing your shiat, AGAIN, ho ho!) and that now-barren strip of sand around Galveston should be reclaimed by their respective states via eminent domain and declared protected wetlands / flood zones, whatever you wanna call it, and NEVER BUILT ON AGAIN.
Sure, people will be sad. People will be mad! People will bitch and moan. But how many times are we going to do this before something changes? How many more times are we going to foot the bill for this AVOIDABLE madness?
In other news, a prediction:
In a year or two, some seriously nasty stuff pertaining to the current administration is going to be revealed and we, collectively, are going to kick ourselves in the asses that we didn't put the smackdown on this regime when we had the chance. Maybe someday the sting of being bamboozled for the last 8 years will subside. I doubt it, though.
