The Texas Crisis Has Again Shown How America Is Both Unable and Unprepared To Protect Its Own People
The US’ poor national infrastructure has been highlighted once more this week, with shocking blackouts in Texas – the inevitable consequence of Washington spending its money on bombs rather than on investing for the public good.
After an unexpected big freeze, Texas is facing an unprecedented crisis. Hit with sub-zero temperatures, parts of the Lone Star State had no power and water for several days, and food supply chains were placed under severe strain. Recent reports suggest there have been 24 deaths.
Footage of long lines and empty shelves in grocery stores resemble scenes from countries against which America has issued sanctions or long mocked for being socialist. Yet, as the state struggles to thaw out, that’s not the only thing that’s frozen – so is the response from Washington. What are the federal government and Congress doing about it? Nothing.
Amid the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has claimed nearly half a million lives, the US seems almost incapable of adequately responding to natural and environmental disasters on its own territory.
For a nation that manages a global military and war machine, such failures are appalling. But the two factors are hardly coincidental. This kind of mismanagement in America isn’t a new thing at all; it is, in fact, an integral aspect of its political and social system, where the free market is religiously put before the public good, and the commitment to arms and bombs is greater than to ordinary people.
This ultimately means America’s own infrastructure is selective and poorly organised, and so it’s not surprising that, when confronted with events such as those we’ve seen in Texas, it lacks the will or capacity to cope.
“Big government is bad” has long been the motto of many American politicians. In the US, intervention from the government in the economy and all aspects of social services is often seen as a p
Article from LewRockwell
