FEMA can’t win
One role for government is to help manage risk in a complex world. Some risks are easy to discern–the consequences of jumping off a cliff for example. Others are harder. We have a raft of agencies — the Federal Trade Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration and even the proposed Consumer Financial Products Administration — all designed to take complex, difficult choices away from individuals.
There is no question that this is a constraint on liberty. An extreme libertarian might say that people should be free to take on any risk they would like. Those who support these agencies counter that it’s hard for people to fully understand those risks, and an uninformed choice is hardly a free one.
But what happens when government becomes the risk-inducing agent?
To provide shelter for many of those rendered homeless by Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency supplied 120,000 trailers to the Gulf Coast region. Now the feds are going to auction them off at deeply discounted rates.
Seems like a good idea, but the hitch is that these trailers have been deemed unsafe to live in due to intoxication and, although they have been labeled to prevent their use as homes, there are signs that ne’erdowells have had no trouble sneaking them into the resale market.
No matter how many protections the government implements to keep consumers safe, some measure of risk is unavoidable. Who gets prosecuted when people start to get sick? FEMA?
-Sam
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