Not worth pulling out of the flood

Today there was a lot of honoring of First Responders that charged into buildings to rescue people they didn't know. Many died when the buildings collapsed. Just a couple weeks ago First Responders helped people avoid Hurricane Irene, then rescued those trapped by the rising waters, and then provided temporary shelter and food. What isn't said is that all those First Responders were and are government employees.

I wrote yesterday that one of the goals of a corporate takeover of government is to dismantle it. According to essayist Terrence Heath, that would include the National Weather Service. Seriously. There have already been attempts. We're talking about the people who track hurricanes, tornadoes, and weather that might cause floods, then warn citizens to take cover or get out of the way -- that National Weather Service.

And what replaces it?

It won't be a charity because charities simply can't raise that kind of money these days.

There might be a state weather service -- if your state government is rich enough to afford it.

There will be a for-profit subscription service -- for those who can afford it. That service could also come, at the gold level, with a limousine to whisk you away to a fancy hotel suite well outside the danger zone. Can't afford that? Perhaps, at the tin level, a crowded bus that will leave you at a highway intersection at the edge of the danger zone where you would be on your own to find shelter.

Can't afford even that? Well. Since you are obviously poor you are also obviously of bad moral character and thus not worth pulling out of the flood.

A hurricane in 1900 (long before they were named or tracked) killed at least 6,000 people, maybe as many as 12,000. Irene killed 40.

In this corporate world a lot more than the National Weather Service would be "defunded" and switched to a subscription service. It would include all those First Responders -- FEMA, police, firefighters. Imagine Detroit without any police (and anyone who could afford to would move to somewhere safe). We already saw what a mismanaged FEMA did to the New Orleans poor during hurricane Katrina.

We've heard lately, even from John Boehner, that government doesn't create jobs. And all those people who collect a government paycheck? Those jobs aren't "real" jobs (in the same way most of us aren't "real" Americans). They can't be real jobs because no profit is being made.