Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Katrina Survivors and Taxes

I have watched several documentaries on Kartrina and theexisting devastation of the New Orleans area. It seems themajor corporate entities such as the Superdome in New Orleansand the Gambling Casinos in Mississippi have been restoredquickly and are functioning.
The areas other than the corporate wealthy areas are stillblighted, full of piles of trash, and vacant. Insurers arefinding excuses for not paying to rebuild houses and the government keeps saying it plans to fund the rebuilding ofthe gulf coast homes, but have not.

If I am not mistaken, didn't all of those homeowners and mostof the apartment dwellers work and pay state and federal taxes? Doesn't that mean they deserve to have some of that tax money available to fix some of that devastation? Does this mean thatwhen there are natural disasters in other parts of the country people will NOT be treated as tax paying citizens of their own country--the United States, but instead like refugees with no rights?

Seeing all of those documentaries on the anniversary gave littlehope to the future of natural disaster plans in this country. A documentary by Discovery Times interviewed many of the professionalswho were present during and after the floods, who contradicted many of the negative media reports that were put on the air about Katrina victims. Were these false reports put on the air to brainwash us against the Katrina victims?

In my opinion all of this demonstrates that although we pay large amounts of state and federal taxes, the government may not be there for you if a natural disaster happens, therefore you MUST get all of your ducks in order now. Save money, keep a credit card with no balance, have an evacuation plan, have provisions, and leave when you are told. That was difficult for the poorest people who did not have money saved or credit cards, but they can tryby contacting family members out of town or finding an inexpensive hotel on higher ground outside town or asking their church for help.

Write your congressman and senator for more clear cut evacuation bills so everyone can be helped when a disaster strikes.

Msfinancialsavvy.com