Ethical Analysis of Hurricane Katrina Disaster - Research Paper Example

Ethical Analysis of Hurricane Katrina Disaster Hurricane Katrina can be termed as an example of a case where the government failed at several points. Firstly, they are blamed of faulty construction and could not fund the project adequately before the disaster. Secondly, they could not allocate the funding to deal with the aftermath of the disaster and severely misallocated the resources. In the light of some of these issues, I would like to study the Hurricane Katrina disaster and analyze the ethical aspects of it. In my report, I shall look into the issues and concerns related to the disaster and analyze what has been done to resolve these. Further, I shall also evaluate the efforts by the state and federal government and give an opinion on how effective these measures were from an ethical perspective. There are several ethical issues related to the Katrina disaster which have their own consequences. The foremost issue arising out of it is the allocation of tax funds. In a disaster situation like this, it is the government’s responsibility to come out and help the victims out of the funds they receive from the tax payers. However, it is the duty of the government that the money is spent wisely. The government should ensure that they spend the amount in a way such that a large number of people affected by the disaster can be compensated. They should receive all items of necessity which should help them in getting back to their normal lives. In the relief efforts after the Katrina disaster, this did not seem the case. Several sources have reported about the unnecessary and unfair spending by the governments. A group called Taxpayers for Common sense (Tax Payers for Common Sense) is one such group which has posted about the government contract information and has indicated about what amount is being spent and who is actually receiving the benefits. The statistics revealed by this group are very shocking and alarming. Any regular tax payer would feel amazed and disgruntled to see his hard earned money being wasted in the name of helping people. Some of the expenditures, done in the name of providing relief and welfare to the victims, reported by this website include $25,078 to purchase laptop computers, $92.28 for a knife, $2950 for a wristwatch $1050,000 for computer software, $281,200 for athletic and sports equipment and $2,115,000 for envelopes and papers. These statistics clearly reflect the unethical practices carried out by the government in the name of welfare. Firstly, it is hard to believe that the government would go ahead and pay such high prices for these items. The departments responsible for purchases have either being totally ignorant on what price they should pay, or have purposely ignored them. On the other hand, even if we ignore the prices of these items and just look at the names, it also appears to be another great shock. The items being bought are mostly items of luxury which do not play a great part in a person’s everyday life. Spending on items like athletic and sports equipment, computer software and Pen Activated Computer Tablets are a sheer wastage of important welfare funds. This also indicates that there has been no audit done by any authority to verify whether the items being purchased are of necessity or not. Any tax payer, who gets detached with his hard earned money taken in the name of tax by the government, would want to protest against the unnecessary spending done by the government. The reason why this becomes an ethical issue is because these actions are legal, but are not correct from a social perspective. There is always a limited amount that is allocated towards carrying out the relief efforts. Normally there are a large number of victims in a disaster and the amount has to be spent to provide relief efforts to all of them. Ideally, these funds should be spent in a way that a large number of people can receive help and get back to their normal lives. In cases like these where the amount is being spent to buy useless items and that too for such extravagant prices, the funds will be distributed very unfairly. Only a few people might be able to take advantage of the relief funds and the rest will still be suffering. It is unethical that some people in the society get extraordinary treatment where as others suffer. It is the government’s duty to allocate the amount in a way that it helps out the maximum number of people and does not promote inequality or unfairness. These expenditures are all funded by tax payers. These tax payers are themselves hardworking people who take out a considerable portion of their income to give it to the government. They expect the government would use these funds wisely for the welfare of the people. They want efficient utilization of these funds for maximum welfare of the society. When the relief amount is being spent on such lavish items, it is unfair to the ordinary tax payers. Items like expensive laptops and sports goods, which have been bought at such high prices, normally a taxpayer might not be able to afford them. It would be unfair to him if other people are getting undue benefits out of his hard-earned income. Another ethical concern is related to the property rights approach. Government has no resources of its own and has to acquire them from the people. It is not fair that the taxpayers of California, Oregon and Michigan should be asked to pay for rebuilding New Orleans. When taxpayers of one state are forced to pay for reconstruction in another state, this becomes an ethical issue. As said by Bastiat (Bastiat) in 1840s: “The state is the great fictitious entity by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else.” If we look at the relief efforts, the federal government was involved in allocating the funds. This is considered to be unethical by many people. Giving a utilitarian argument, they say that the government can never allocate resources in an efficient manner. The private sector is much more efficient in doing everything. Wastage of scarce resources is considered unethical from a social perspective. Undoubtedly, the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina was immense particularly in the coastal regions where several houses were destroyed by the floods. Although there is no constitutional authority for involving in charitable activities towards relief and rehabilitation of the victims, it is special interest legislation as opposed to something that provides for the general welfare. If someone, at their own risk, wants to live in a flood zone, they should be ready to meet the cost of destruction. If they cannot, they should simple move to another location. People, having enough sense to not live in flood areas, are the ones who are paying for the insurance premiums of those who chose to settle in these areas. In other words, the general public is being forced to subsidize this behavior. It is highly unfair to force the lower and middle income taxpayers to subsidize for pay for reconstructing the homes of millionaires. The houses along the Long Island beach in New York are all multi-million dollar homes which end up being destroyed every few years. The government ends up paying for the damages to these wealthy house owners out of the hard earned money of the poor tax payers in other areas. This unfair treatment towards some people makes it a socially unethical issue. This is where the government should start thinking and realize what they are doing. Yes, relief and rehabilitation is important, but only to people who really need it. Firstly, they should discourage construction along the levees in flood regions. Despite that, even if people want to construct their homes, they should be told to do at their own risk and no compensation should be made in terms of any disaster. In this report I have looked some of the ethical issues rising out of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. The reason which makes them a concern is because some people are being treated unfairly at the expense of some other people. The government should seek to ensure equality and justice in the society and not punish some people in order to giver rewards to some others. Bibliography Bastiat, F. Selected Essays on Political Economy, Foundation for Economics. New York, NY: Irvington-on-Hudson, 1964. McGee, Robert W. "An economic and ethical analysis of the Katrina disaster." IJSE 35,7 (n.d.): 546-557. Tax Payers for Common Sense. 4 December 2009 . Read More