Should Tax Payers Have to Pay to Rebuild Levees in Flood Prone Areas?
Neil Weinberg, Senior Editor: My thoughts go out to the people in Iowa, but this is a manmade disaster. This is a result of agribusiness, and their cronies on Capitol Hill. The fact of the matter is we have changed the land in Iowa. Ninety percent of the wetlands are gone. The wetlands used to absorb the floodwaters. We have 106,000 acres in Iowa that have been taken out of a conservation reserve in the last year. With this type of development, rebuilding the levees is absurd. Josh Lipton, Forbes.com Staff Writer: When you talk about the natural disasters, you have to question was it the weather that did the damage or was it substandard public infrastructure that broke down? If it was the latter that caused it, the taxpayers should step up and rebuild. The broader point is this- in every region there are risks: Midwest floods, California earthquakes. I think people feel they should step up and help out their neighbors. That’s part of what defines us as a national community. Jack Gage,
