Hero of the Hurricane: Wal-Mart

Out of the miasma of blame and media bias in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, one American institution
is emerging from the cloud of ruins like a firefighter emerging from the ruin of the World Trade Center:
Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart was first with a monetary contribution to disaster aid. Wal-Mart had pre-positioned
goods like generators and Pop-Tarts (!) at its distribution centers. Wal-Mart announced it would
open mini-Wal-Marts in the disaster area to distribute vital food and supplies to disaster victims.
And Wal-Mart already has nearly all of its stores in the disaster area back in business.

Even the left has taken notice, but only to slap Wal-Mart with the usual canards. In The Nation
Liza Featherstone compliments Wal-Mart for their response:

Thank goodness, then, for Wal-Mart, which immediately sent 1,900 truckloads of
water and other emergency supplies to the afflicted. The company has also contributed $17
million to
the hurricane relief effort, and more than $3 million in merchandise.

Then she slips in the shiv:

A company capable of operating in such a coordinated, humane way should do
so not just in a disaster but every day. There is no reason Wal-Mart could not operate
in an equally streamlined, well-organized manner to make sure that labor laws (on overtime,
child labor, discrimination) are followed. There is no reason its impressive resources could
not be marshaled to remedy the daily, ongoing disaster that
so many of its workers face: low wages and inadequate healthcare.

Then she goes too far.

According to the conservative wingnuts at the Wall Street Journal editorial page,
the superiority of Wal-Mart’s Katrina response shows that the private sector is simply more
effective than the government. Well, yes, oddly enough, when you starve a government by draining
its resources and
electing officials who don’t believe in it, nothing seems to work.

Er, what exactly do you mean by people who “don’t believe” in government? You mean “belief” like in
religion? And what exactly do you mean about a government starved for resources? Which government
did you have in mind, exactly?

The commentary of economics professor
Thomas Sowell is perhaps a little more reliable.

[The] question is what set of incentives has the better track record for
getting the job done -- and especially getting the job done promptly when time can be
the difference between life and death.

The country does not have one dime more resources available when those resources are channeled
through government. The resources are just handled less effectively by government and dispensed
in an indiscriminate way that encourages people to
continue locating in the known path of predictable disasters.

What we saw after Hurrican Katrina is that individuals and corporations were able to act, and did act,
much faster than governments at all levels. That ought to teach us a lesson, even the faithful
believers in government at The Nation.