Problem SOLVED! Disaster Response

As strained forces of firefighters start to gain ground against what seemed to be unstoppable wildfires, there is a risk that we could be cajoled into thinking that this problem is already solved.  I'm sure you'll agree though, that there will be a next time, and it may even be premature to signal the end of this current fight.  The fires aren't out yet, after all.  The firefighters are still tired.  We may or may not have escaped these fires without losing everything, but if we did, it was by the narrowest of margins, and we may not be so lucky next time.  And, given the suspicion that they may have been started by arson, there's no guarantee that the next time won't be in any other forest, and we have plenty of them (plenty enough, in fact, that we really shouldn't be worried about deforestation.  Deforestation?  There's forests everywhere.  Yet every month or so I run out of toilet paper.  What's wrong with that picture?  Perhaps that's best kept for another edition.)

Basically, though, this scale of disaster will happen again, regardless of whether or not it was caused intentionally by humans.  It could have been negligence.  That also doesn't matter; there's no way currently known for man to purposefully or by accident start an earthquake, but that wouldn't keep a big earthquake from doing enough damage to require huge amounts of manpower for the clean up.  Ultimately, that's what it comes down to:  when we have disasters, we are unable to allocate the proper resources to clean them up.

This is where my theory of motivation comes into play.  The government can legislate the allocation of funds all they want -- it's not going to keep the bureaucrats from sitting on the check until they get either A) replaced or B) a raise and a commendation from the White House.  We need a means to induce motivation on a broader level.  We need the people to want to act, to want to help.  I'm not talking about some grass roots volunteer program.  Sure, that will bring out the well-wishers and the bleeding hearts, but the best way to get people to help, of course, is to allow them to help by helping themselves.

What could I mean by that?  Ladies and gentlemen, I direct your attention to the similar case of the Westward Expansion of the United States.  In many separate cases, and in particular in the case of the Unassigned Lands of the Oklahoma Territory, the government simply gave away land in an effort to settle it, to tame it, and to put it to good economic use.  Naturally, there were people habiting this land before the United States legislature ever made laws about it, just as there were once people living in the now evacuated lands of southern California.  However, the fire now, like the land then, is untamed, and someone must regain control if it's ever to return to that sweet range of economic usefulness. 

Then, the Indian Appropriation Act of 1871 allowed prospectors 160 acres of their very own, and all they had to do was claim it.  Today, the Southern California Reclamation Act of 2007 could allow for more meager but super-valuable plots of land in charred southern California, but with the stipulation that you must first put out the first on that land yourself.  Obviously, the firefighters would go from being spread too thinly to being overwhelmed with support, all thanks to the beneficent and invisible hand of the market.  It worked when we needed to tame the savage lands.  It will work now that we need to tame the fires.  And it will work in the future against whatever challenges lay ahead.

Additionally, do not concern yourself over what will become of those who will be displaced by this legislation -- that is, those who are unable to put out the fires on their own land before someone with a more intrepid spirit beats them to it.  These people will be well taken care of under the terms of the Act, which will set aside or "reserve" a sizable chunk of real estate for them on the northern coast of the beautiful and scenic state of Alaska.  Unfortunately, due to the rising cost of gasoline, they will have to walk there.

Giving out free land in the name of progress is the American way.  Once upon a time in the west, it was a policy that fostered the economic growth of this country.  Today, it could foster a rapid recovery, which we've been unable to provide for New Orleans.  All we need to do is step back and let the market do all the work, and this problem will be solved.