Compassion Fatigue
by Richard
What happens when the tank just runs dry…when you decide not to drop any more coins into the beggar’s outstretched palm.
I think we’re getting much closer to that point….unless of course you are the one waiting for the hand out.
I’m not talking about welfare for hedge funds and banks. That is a runaway train now…like it or not.
Case in point: The City of Houston
Houston authorized a $1.5 million appropriation for emergency home and roof repairs after last year’s hurricane Ike. Amazingly, there was $444,000 remaining in this fund.
Rather than return the money to the city treasury, someone had the bright idea of creating the “Credit Score Enhancement Program“.
Freely translated, that would have given up to $3,000 in grants to individuals trying to secure financing on a home purchase, but who were hampered by low credit scores resulting from unpaid bills.
Yes…you read that right: A cash grant to deadbeats whose credit score was too low to qualify for financing.
The city tried to justify this as a means of promoting home ownership—to increase the tax base and lower crime. This line of reasoning may sound familiar….as it is chapter and verse from the misguided logic that gave us the sub-prime mortgage scandal.
How is it possible that we can remember the pain of the Great Depression seventy-five years ago…while we ignore the current carnage inflicted on our economy as the byproduct of promoting home ownership to those who were entirely unsuited to the task and responsibilities?
This time the public was not buying. Word got out on the street, and the uproar, outrage and indignation were sufficient to embarrass the program to an early death.
How could this have been prevented in the first place?
First, homeowners had recourse to their insurance policies to repair hurricane damage. If they had no insurance (i.e. were self insured) it came out of their pocket. And those with insurance had to swallow some very large deductibles.
The city of Houston was motivated — just as Congress was — to mitigate the consequences of improvident behavior. The middle class is left to fend for itself, as welfare is directed to the extremes — to gargantuan financial institutions with political clout — and to the least productive of the population.
The danger, of course, is that those on the receiving end of income transfers may soon come to outnumber those on the giving end. That seems to be the rationale behind the administration’s desire to dismantle our market economy.
This brush fire was quickly extinguished.
While the larger conflagration threatens to engulf and overwhelm us all.
April 6th, 2009 at 1:17 am
[…] Richard @ Blue Jeans Millionaire has an interesting piece on compassion fatigue. He talks about Houston giving money to people with low credit scores resulting from unpaid bills […]
April 6th, 2009 at 8:29 pm
I’m glad Houston squashed that. It seems to me that a lot of unnecessary spending is taking place in hopes that it will “jump start” the economy. It all sounds like a bunch of BS in my opinion. Balance the budgets and let’s get back on track. Oh, and stop giving out money to every Tom, Dick, and Harry that refuses to pay their bills but still wants the reward of the American Dream. That used to mean something, but greedy banks and overzealous politicians have effectively killed that!