Hurricane Katrina - 20 years later

[Stalin]

Anyone who has read the book "Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein will not be the least surprised by what this city has become - disaster capitalism
on a grand scale

"..The “rebuilding” program after Katrina accelerated the nationwide social counterrevolution already underway. The city was held up as a model for the country: Nearly the entire public school system was privatized and turned into for-profit charter schools, housing projects were demolished, and Charity Hospital, founded in 1736 to serve the poor, was permanently closed. The poorest neighborhoods were emptied of large sections of their working class residents, while other areas were gentrified.

Today, the population remains 23 percent smaller than before the storm, the poverty rate is 22.6 percent—more than double the national average of 11.1 percent—and economic inequality is greater than ever. Public transportation has shrunk to just 35 percent of its pre-Katrina capacity.

As the New York Times admitted this week,

New Orleans is smaller, poorer and more unequal than before the storm … rebuilding programs were little more than corporate bailouts … used to justify major private-sector takeovers of public services. … New Orleans now ranks as the most income unequal major city in America. Nearly one in three children live in poverty—and for Black children, the rate is 43 percent.

These conditions are a concentrated expression of broader developments across the United States. Since 2005, the concentration of wealth in the hands of the rich and super-rich has only accelerated: The share of national wealth held by the top 1 percent has risen from 22 percent to more than 30 percent today.

Over the same period, there have been two multitrillion-dollar bailouts of Wall Street, in 2008 and 2020, carried out with bipartisan support, alongside further tax cuts for the wealthy, record military budgets and deep cuts to social programs.

20 years since Hurricane Katrina

The “rebuilding” program launched after Katrina accelerated the nationwide social counterrevolution that had been underway for decades.

www.wsws.org

comrade stalin
moscow

 

[mark francis]

Anyone who has read the book "Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein will not be the least surprised by what this city has become - disaster capitalism
on a grand scale

"..The “rebuilding” program after Katrina accelerated the nationwide social counterrevolution already underway. The city was held up as a model for the country: Nearly the entire public school system was privatized and turned into for-profit charter schools, housing projects were demolished, and Charity Hospital, founded in 1736 to serve the poor, was permanently closed. The poorest neighborhoods were emptied of large sections of their working class residents, while other areas were gentrified.

Today, the population remains 23 percent smaller than before the storm, the poverty rate is 22.6 percent—more than double the national average of 11.1 percent—and economic inequality is greater than ever. Public transportation has shrunk to just 35 percent of its pre-Katrina capacity.

As the New York Times admitted this week,


These conditions are a concentrated expression of broader developments across the United States. Since 2005, the concentration of wealth in the hands of the rich and super-rich has only accelerated: The share of national wealth held by the top 1 percent has risen from 22 percent to more than 30 percent today.

Over the same period, there have been two multitrillion-dollar bailouts of Wall Street, in 2008 and 2020, carried out with bipartisan support, alongside further tax cuts for the wealthy, record military budgets and deep cuts to social programs.

20 years since Hurricane Katrina

The “rebuilding” program launched after Katrina accelerated the nationwide social counterrevolution that had been underway for decades.

www.wsws.org

comrade stalin
moscow

When have democrats ever taxed the wealthy?

 

[Starcastle]

Can somebody clue Stalin in that Bush and Cheney are anti Trump?

Yes Bush was a horrible president. Trump would have handled Katrina much better.