A Florida Nitwit, Climate Change, and The Limits of Privatization
A Florida woman makes a strong play for being the World’s Worst Neighbor, Non-Serial Killer division. Unhappy that a storm conduit on her land was apparently overflowing and eroding her yard, she had it filled with concrete. Now, unsurprisingly, rainstorms flood the streets and other yards since the rainwater has nowhere to go. The kicker? There is almost nothing that her neighbors can do to fix the problem.
The neighbors’ helplessness stems from the broken idea of privatization. The community in question is a private community where the street maintenance is essentially the purview of a jumped-up homeowner’s association. In other words, this is a private contractual dispute, not a violation of the law of the rules of a legitimate community. They have sued, but the judge has not scheduled even so much as a hearing yet. And even if the fines that can be placed on her home result in a lien, the law in Florida does not allow for foreclosing on a “homestead” home. Basically, if she never sells, she never has to lay the fines.
Libertarianism at its finest.
The problem, of course, is that climate change is going to make this situation much worse. The wetter the atmosphere, the more rain will come down in storms and the more powerful the storms will be. The other residents are legitimately concerned about what is going to happen when a hurricane comes through and are demanding that the country government do something. That last is amusing to me, but also telling.
When the problems are large enough, people almost reflexively turn to the government. That makes perfect sense — a democratic government is legitimate in a manner that a private homeowner’s association is not. A government reflects the will of the community, as flawed as it may be, much more effectively than a private contract. And a government is expected to treat everyone fairly, or at least equally, because a democratic government is a collection of equals. And since a government is supposed to help all its citizens, when the problem is collective, people turn to the expression of the collective good — a democratic government.
Privatization, such as these private communities, are not going to be up to the challenge of solving these collective problems. Because privatization is not about collective security or governing. It is about breaking down the collective good so that private individuals can profit from said breakdown. This town likely pays lower fees and taxes since they set them without regard to the collective need of the rest of their community — the county in which they reside. And they likely do not have the requirement about thinking for the long term — just minimizing the amount of money needed to keep the community’s infrastructure from falling apart. Add to that the fact that the only dispute resolution possible if private contract law and privatization is obviously and woefully incapable of meeting the challenges of the world that we live in.
Yes, this woman is a first-class schmuck. But if the people involved had not chosen to be members of a contract instead of members of a community, this would never have happened. She would never have been allowed to commit this vandalism. And if she had done it anyway, it would have been swiftly undone, and she would have faced real penalties for endangering her neighbors. Instead, she can hurt her contract members, and they have no recourse but a private lawsuit, a completely inadequate response to real problems.
And we are going to have a lot more real problems coming down the road as climate change accelerates. This woman’s selfish lunacy not only marks her as world-class jerk, it is a reminder that collective problems require collective solutions. And the only way collective solutions can be legitimate is if they flow from the legitimacy of a democratic governing process.
The rain is going to come, and private solutions cannot keep our streets dry. Especially when Florda Woman is involved.