Glenden BrownWhen Governments Fail . . .
the most vulnerable pay the price.
In the 1840s, the government of Great Britain failed spectacularly. The instance was the horrific blind dedication of the government to “free enterprise.” The result was the death of millions during the Irish famine.
From the history place:
As a devout advocate of laissez-faire, [Prime Minister] Trevelyan also claimed that aiding the Irish brought “the risk of paralyzing all private enterprise.” Thus he ruled out providing any more government food, despite early reports the potato blight had already been spotted amid the next harvest in the west of Ireland. Trevelyan believed Peel’s policy of providing cheap Indian corn meal to the Irish had been a mistake because it undercut market prices and had discouraged private food dealers from importing the needed food. This year, the British government would do nothing. The food depots would be closed on schedule and the Irish fed via the free market, reducing their dependence on the government while at the same time maintaining the rights of private enterprise.
In the face of millions going hungry, of deaths, of a natural disaster, the government of Great Britain remained passive - convinced by some miracle that the “free market” would feed the starving. Even more horrific, when the “free market” finally reacted, it was worse than useless:
. . . in Cork harbor, the long-awaited private enterprise shipments of Indian corn and other food supplies had finally begun arriving. Food prices dropped by half and later dropped to a third of what they had been, but the penniless Irish still could not afford to eat. As a result, food accumulated in warehouses within sight of people walking about the streets starving.
From the BBC:
The influence of the doctrine of laissez-faire may also be seen in two other decisions. The first was the decision to terminate the soup-kitchen scheme in September 1847 after only six months of operation. The idea of feeding directly a large proportion of the Irish population violated all of the Whigs’ cherished notions of how government and society should function. The other decision was the refusal of the government to undertake any large scheme of assisted emigration. The Irish viceroy actually proposed in this fashion to sweep the western province of Connacht clean of as many as 400,000 pauper smallholders too poor to emigrate on their own. But the majority of Whig cabinet ministers saw little need to spend public money accelerating a process that was already going on ‘privately’ at a great rate.
From digital history:
The Irish potato famine was not simply a natural disaster. It was a product of social causes. Under British rule, Irish Catholics were prohibited from entering the professions or even purchasing land. Instead, many rented small plots of land from absentee British Protestant landlords. Half of all landholdings were less than 5 acres in 1845 . . .
The inadequacy of relief efforts by the British Government worsened the horrors of the potato famine. Initially, England believed that the free market would end the famine. In 1846, in a victory for advocates of free trade, Britain repealed the Corn Laws, which protected domestic grain producers from foreign competition. The repeal of the Corn Laws failed to end the crisis since the Irish lacked sufficient money to purchase foreign grain.
. . . during the famine’s worst years, many Anglo-Irish estates continued to export grain and livestock to England.
That last sentence, most of all, stands as condemnation of a government so morally bankrupt it could not grasp the disaster on its doorstep. Under armed guard, as millions starved, food was exported from Ireland to England.
Having conquered, despoiled, destroyed and economically raped Ireland for hundreds of years, England was astonishingly callous when its horrific policies - the Penal Law primarily - resulted in massive disaster.
Why is the potato famine relevant today? Well, apparently a group of congresscritters will be visiting storm devastated neighborhoods in New Orleans. Think about that. As of today, there are still neighborhoods in New Orleans devastated by Katrina that have yet to be rebuilt. The Bush administration has failed as spectacularly today as did the government of Great Britain 160 years for almost the same reasons.
George W. Bush and “Heckuva job” Brownie had no idea there were people stranded at the Superdome when average Americans watching CNN knew they were there. Bush and his cronies are so enamored with free market they tried to figure out how private charities could take up the slack when the government failed. Conservative commentators blamed the people of New Orleans - some simply suggesting it was stupid of them to live in New Orleans. Others went so far as to say that because they were poor and black they were all on welfare and addicted to government handouts. (I’d find the links but frankly reading that crap makes me ill.)
In both cases, a natural disaster was made expontentially worse by a government enamored with ideology, convinced that some magical force would kick in and the “free market” would take care of things. Katrina and the Irish Famine were both made significantly worse by governments blinded by ideology and bigotry. The Bush administration didn’t fail by accident - they failed by design. And the people of New Orleans are still paying the price.
For more info, visit ccn.com to see the Katrina hearings.