Freakonomics Blog Asks Some Dumb Questions
Over on the Freakonomics blog, Steven Levitt has asked some dumb questions, but that’s his right.
They can be simply answered, so I’ll try and do so. Simple is right up my alley. I excel at simple. Sometimes that’s good, often it’s bad. It’s all I got.
His #1 question - ” How much of the damage/human toll is because of the hurricane per se versus the levees breaking? If we had perfect foresight, would 1,000 well-placed national guardsmen and some heavy machinery have been enough to save the levees? ”
My simple answers are ( for the first part ), does it really matter now ? The levee’s didn’t blow the windows out of the hotels, nor did they blow down phone and power lines. They have allowed massive flooding and they have contributed to the extremely high toll for clean-up, but as of right now, it really doesn’t matter. What matter’s is making sure it doesn’t happen again and getting these peoples lives back in order.
The second part of the question is asked in an honest, matter of fact way, so I’ll anawer it that way. No. Hell no. It should not have been necessary for them to even try to do that and they would have no shot at stopping the levee’s from breaking. Mostly, this type of damage comes from the backside and inside, so external forces are, for the most part, futile.
His question #2 - ” If terrorists had thought of this first, could they have achieved the same effect as the hurricane, except more devastating because the attack would have come with no warning? ”
Wow. I find it hard to believe that a person would even write this down. Why would you even plant this scenario in their minds ? Nevertheless, I’ll answer with a resounding NO ! They would not have had the power of the winds, all the extra water that was being driven at over 100 mph. This one isn’t even close. Would it have been catastrophic, sure it would, but not even close to the hurricanes devastation.
His question #3 - ” If so, are there other potential situations like this out there where a terrorist with a few explosive devices could cause such ruin? ”
Another Wow ! You don’t have to be a terrorist to cause ruin. Idiots do it every day with trains, planes and automobiles. This one is too simple even for me. We simply cannot live in an enviromment that is free from possible ruin. Can’t happen. Won’t happen. A better question would be to ask how can we rid society of those that would target scenario’s like this ?
His question #4 - ” Would the initial rescue response have been different if the victims weren’t poor and black? ”
That’s an ugly question to ask, but it’s honest and it’s his right, so I’ll give my opinion. No, the people who are responding did not and will not even think about the race creed or color of those that need help. They’re helping because it’s their job or because they feel compelled to. There’s no other reasons a human would face this mess. Mr. Levitt feels compelled to ask stupid questions, although it seems he does so from the right angle and others feel compelled to help those in need. Probably takes about the same amount of effort to do either. One is far more profitable than the other.
We have done posts about the relief efforts on several of the blogs in our network. We have put up banners that link potential donors to the proper organizations. We have donated.
I challenge Freakonomics to do the same or more.
You guys are highly educated, which could actually hurt your chances of doing the simple, right thing. You get a lot of traffic to your blog, so you could give a lot of info out to those that could donate time, money or physical effort. You are very articulate, versus my simple ways, so surely you can do more than you’ve done so far.
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