New study says Wal-Mart did the most to help hurricane Katrina victims
Posted on April 2nd, 2008 by bile Categories and Tags: Uncategorized, Austrian economics, donation, drugs, economics, Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, George S. Patton, Henry V, Hurricane Katrina, Lee Scott, New York, politics, St. Lawrence University in New York, Steven Horwitz, U.S. Gulf Coast, Wal-MartShortly before Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the U.S. Gulf Coast on the morning of Aug. 29, 2005, the chief executive officer of Wal-Mart, Lee Scott, gathered his subordinates and ordered a memorandum sent to every single regional and store manager in the imperiled area. His words were not especially exalted, but they ought to be mounted and framed on the wall of every chain retailer — and remembered as American business’s answer to the pre-battle oratory of George S. Patton or Henry V.”A lot of you are going to have to make decisions above your level,” was Scott’s message to his people. “Make the best decision that you can with the information that’s available to you at the time, and above all, do the right thing.”
This extraordinary delegation of authority — essentially promising unlimited support for the decision-making of employees who were earning, in many cases, less than $100,000 a year — saved countless lives in the ensuing chaos. The results are recounted in a new paper on the disaster written by Steven Horwitz, an Austrian-school economist at St. Lawrence University in New York.
Sure the study was done by an Austrian (I wonder if they would have mentioned that prior to the RPR?) but if you paid any attention to the debocal that was hurricane Katrina you’d know that the private businesses attempted to do a whole lot while FEMA told them to pound sand and sat on their hands. I don’t know that I’ll get around to reading the study but the info about the CEO’s deligation of power is very interesting and while I greatly dislike their collusion with government and fishy growth strategy this gives them a few bonus points in my book.
2 Responses to “New study says Wal-Mart did the most to help hurricane Katrina victims”
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April 2nd, 2008 at 6:34 pm
When you look back at situation, it seems obvious that big chain stores would outperform FEMA. Companies like WalMart handle distribution problems (albeit of lesser degree) everyday. At best, FEMA can run simulations and deploy only when disasters strike. Question, what role would you have liked to have seen from the federal / state gov’t?
April 2nd, 2008 at 6:43 pm
Instead of giving the typical monopoly on force, "I’m in charge here, we’ll handle it" attitude they could have coordinated with private companies and groups to provide supplies as needed. Everything from anti-gouging laws to sending ice to Maine and blocking private help was absolutely wrong. They did nothing right. So looking back their role should have been to stand out of the way.