Article: What Went Wrong in New Orleans? An Examination of the Welfare Dependency Explanation. Social Probelms 55(1) Feb 2008
Summary: From Kanye to the Ivory Tower, our society has fiercly debated what went wrong in New Orleans in the immediate period after hurricane Katrina, especially as to why the evacuation was handled so poorly and resulted in so many problems. Some, like Mr. West, blame poor decision-making and lack of aid on the part of the federal government, while other commentators argue that the poor have an excessive dependency on the government. These “welfare dependency theorists” argue that “a dependency-induced ‘mentality of helplessness’” prevalent amongst New Orleans residents was responsible for hampering the evacuation. To test the latter theory, Timothy Brezina used survey data to examine the characteristics of those New Orleanians who were trapped in the city after the hurricane. His findings indicate that, contrary to the claims of the welfare dependency theorists, over half of these New Orleanians were employed full time before Katrina hit and many showed great initiative after the storm. Multiple other factors the welfare dependency theorists would predict also did not hold true, suggesting the fault of the evacuations does not lie with the residents of New Orleans.