The Times editorialists implicitly are horrified at the prospect that New Orleans might be rebuilt by free-market forces responding to present-day economic reality. Their prescription is back (and I do mean backwards) to the Nanny State.

As noted in New Orleans: The Harsh Moral and Political Realities, New Orleans has for generations been rotten at the core as a consequence of the welfare state inaugurated by Huey Long in the 1920s. The last thing needed, by its former welfare-dependent residents or by its working population, is to sink again into the swamp of socialist despond.

Thomas E. Brewton is a staff writer for the New Media Alliance, Inc. The New Media Alliance is a non-profit (501c3) national coalition of writers, journalists and grass-roots media outlets.

His weblog is THE VIEW FROM 1776

http://www.thomasbrewton.com/

Email comments to viewfrom1776@thomasbrewton.com