$62,000,000,000 (billion) to rebuild a city of 484,674 people?!?
That's $127,921.04 EACH. For a family of four that's $511,684.14
That's what it's already cost for welfare for the displaced citizens of New Orleans. Right or wrong, that's what we do in America--dig deep to help those who have lost everything. I know that a lot of these people had little or no work before, but we don't ignore them. And yes, it's costing about $100k per person from FEMA for food and housing for up to 24 months.
But in many ways it was brilliant to disburse these people into the rest of the country. They have a chance to integrate with more opportunities than they had in New Orleans.
I have a buddy there now rebuilding. It's getting more back to normal but the Ninth Ward will never ever come back. It's too low and will become a park or something. I've heard that 60% of those residents owned their own homes though so Congress will probably vote to give each homeowner $150k for their house and lot and call it square.
How about giving them the assessed value [usually a bit low] plus 10%? I do not know property values in the Lower 9th Ward ... but somethow doubt that most of the houses were valued at $150,000 or anything near that.
Yes, the rate of home ownership is reported to be near 60%.