The Flint Water Crisis Explained
Water is awesome. It strikes fear into the hearts of men and sustains their lives. What a paradox. In Scripture, water is a chaotic force that is controlled solely by the invisible hand of the One Living God. Bumbling bureaucrats cause water crises in California, Michigan, and elsewhere because they are idolatrous enough to trust in the works of their own hands rather than letting water producers and consumers naturally find each other and calculate prices. Scripturally, humans are most efficient in Genesis 11 as they build the Tower of Babel. They did this through the voluntary division of labor, not through legislative fiat and coercive centralization. But I digress.
Professionally I am an Organizational Ombudsman. This is similar, although not exactly so, to a Classical/Governmental Ombudsman. Flint, Michigan had the latter until November 2008.
One of the primary functions of a Classical Ombudsman is to manage complaints betwixt people and coercive government. Flint's main Ombuds and four other employees were fired due to budget cuts. Conservative estimates say that Ombuds office return $14 for every $1 invested and liberal estimates turn the 14 into a 20. From a purely monetary perspective, Flint's Ombuds Office should have remained open. From a human loving perspective, perhaps the current water crisis could have been avoided with all of the data gathered from thousands and tens of thousands of complaints that the people of Flint could have aired to the Ombuds.
Mull it over.
Furthermore, we must love each other.