[Rhodes22-list] P-NO Water Flooding Back In

[Bill Effros]

Rik,

I don't argue the budget cut this year issue.

Nor do I know about the self-perpetuating jobs issue because I know so 
few government employees.

I think everyone has a right to fight for their own projects, and I 
think that some jobs must be done by governments.  A good example of 
this, for us, are the outstanding free charts available for virtually 
all waterways around the US--constantly updated.

Say what you want, but those things are both incredible, and invaluable 
to our community.  There aren't enough of us to support the number of 
people required to produce and maintain them.  It's hard to explain to 
farmers who never sail why we can't just be content with the ones we 
have, and abolish the agencies that maintain and update them.

Just as it's hard for them to explain to us why we should fund some of 
the farmer perks they get.

Why should truckers get the roads for free?  (Don't answer!  It's a 
question others ask about your perks--that's all.)

In theory, we all get advantages from compromising and supporting 
projects that don't directly benefit us, in return for others supporting 
projects that do directly benefit us.

It's not a clean process.  Each of us tries to convince others that 
supporting our projects has more benefits to them than our supporting 
their projects has to us.  "Politics" we call it.

But it's based on the underlying concept of all being in the same boat, 
and having to pull together.  When that idea gets lost, we are all set 
adrift.  That's what really worries me, and why I constantly fight to 
pull people back to the center--to work for the common good.

Bill Effros



Rik Sandberg wrote:

>Bill,
>
>Honest answer:
>
>Yeah, I really can't argue with that.
>
>Self perpetuating jobs is the goal of most gov't employees, is it not??
>
>I never really argued whether the levees were built right or not. I simply said that the budget cuts that were made *this year* would have made very little difference in the outcome. The areas that turned out to be the problem were not the areas that were even planned for renovation or improvement.
>
>Rik
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Bill Effros <bill at effros.com>
>Sent: Sep 23, 2005 10:24 AM
>To: R22 List <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
>Subject: [Rhodes22-list] P-NO Water Flooding Back In
>
>Rik,
>
>Not to beat a dead horse, but I just saw the water is flooding back into 
>New Orleans again. 
>
>Apparently the water never over-topped the levees in the first place.  
>The last I saw, the levees were not built properly, and simply broke.
>
>To me, and I think Brad, we can argue the merits of whether the levees 
>should be there or not all day; but once that fight has been fought, and 
>the levees are in place, it is the responsibility of somebody to ensure 
>that the levees are built properly. 
>
>I have long had a lot of trouble with the Army Corps of Engineers.  As 
>far as I'm concerned, it's a pork barrel outfit doing a pork barrel job 
>with port barrel results. 
>
>Sure, they have done some things well, even admirably.   But you can't 
>trust a word they say, because their ultimate goal is to just keep 
>building, regardless of the merits of the project.
>
>Pretty fiscally conservative, huh?
>
>Bill Effros
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