Flint MI schools get clean water for less than half a mil

[dead0man]

link=CNN

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why, for the love of all that is good and holy, is this just now (well, SOON) happening?  How the hell has no other rich person (or the state of Michigan) noticed this problem?  Wasn't this a big deal a couple of years ago?  Nobody thought to do a GoFundMe?  $480k isn't all that much money, especially for such an obviously good cause.

The only theory I can come up with is that they weren't particularly needed because they had some other method to get the kids clean water.  I've lightly Googled and couldn't find the answer.  If these kids have been drinking lead water or had no water at school for the last 4 years then every rich person (and the state of Michigan) in this country is a poop face and should be shamed.

[PSOL]

I assume Musk did this to cleanse himself of bad publicity and a tax break. Either way after it died on the news people outright don’t donate. Really if you want to help tell the gov to get in gear and donate regularly to a respectable charity.

[Koharu]

FINALLY. I mean, it's not clean water everywhere in Flint, but it's something. I just can't believe some richy-rich hadn't done this at any point in the last, what, four years? for some good publicity. I know if I had that kinda money, this is exactly the kind of thing I would do, only anonymous because I'm weird like that.

I still hate Musk but at least he's doing some good to try to make himself look good again.

[Rules for me, but not for thee]

Because there's a ton of work to be done on the water system in Flint and has been ongoing since that story broke:

https://www.cityofflint.com/2018/10/08/pipes-excavated-at-15592-flint-homes-to-date-through-mayor-weavers-fast-start-initiative/

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[Rules for me, but not for thee]

FINALLY. I mean, it's not clean water everywhere in Flint, but it's something. I just can't believe some richy-rich hadn't done this at any point in the last, what, four years? for some good publicity. I know if I had that kinda money, this is exactly the kind of thing I would do, only anonymous because I'm weird like that.

I still hate Musk but at least he's doing some good to try to make himself look good again.

Why because he's rich? Haters gonna hate I guess. People have to identify what needs fixing first and meanwhile Elon might be thinking about 100 things, so push it into his attention he'll usually try to do something.

[dead0man]

I assume Musk did this to cleanse himself of bad publicity and a tax break.

perhaps, he's still better than every other person on Earth that could easily have done this at any point in the last 4 years.  The person you're going to vote for President next could have done this, but they didn't.

[PSOL]

I assume Musk did this to cleanse himself of bad publicity and a tax break.

perhaps, he's still better than every other person on Earth that could easily have done this at any point in the last 4 years.  The person you're going to vote for President next could have done this, but they didn't.

It could have gone fixed if we had an administration that prioritized their lives.

[dead0man]

I assume Musk did this to cleanse himself of bad publicity and a tax break.

perhaps, he's still better than every other person on Earth that could easily have done this at any point in the last 4 years.  The person you're going to vote for President next could have done this, but they didn't.

It could have gone fixed if we had an administration that prioritized their lives.

indeed, the local govt made this problem in the first place and the state govt was slow to pick up the ball.  Doesn't change the fact that there are tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of people that claim to care about such things and could easily have paid for this, but didn't.  And a whole mess of others that could have easily gotten together and gotten done, but didn't.

[Rules for me, but not for thee]

I assume Musk did this to cleanse himself of bad publicity and a tax break.

perhaps, he's still better than every other person on Earth that could easily have done this at any point in the last 4 years.  The person you're going to vote for President next could have done this, but they didn't.

It could have gone fixed if we had an administration that prioritized their lives.

Obama didn't, Trump doesn't, Clinton probably wouldn't, Bernie would.

[Badger]

I assume Musk did this to cleanse himself of bad publicity and a tax break.

perhaps, he's still better than every other person on Earth that could easily have done this at any point in the last 4 years.  The person you're going to vote for President next could have done this, but they didn't.

That last sentence seems like quite the Assumption indeed.

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

Obviously this is good at a local level, but it seems like a poor policy precedent to set where you rely on hyper-wealthy people to fix problems by volunteering to throw some of their money at the problem with little public accountability.

[Koharu]

Obviously this is good at a local level, but it seems like a poor policy precedent to set where you rely on hyper-wealthy people to fix problems by volunteering to throw some of their money at the problem with little public accountability.

Yep. Unfortunately, this is exactly what traditional Republicans want. Charity, not government, blah blah. It's gross.

[Santander]

I assume Musk did this to cleanse himself of bad publicity and a tax break. Either way after it died on the news people outright don’t donate. Really if you want to help tell the gov to get in gear and donate regularly to a respectable charity.

Obama drank the water.

[Beet]

So basically 3 years after it became national news and everyone agreed it was a problem, a small part of it finally gets fixed... by the private sector. Great argument against government power, that conservatives could capitalize on if they still cared about that sort of thing.

[Rules for me, but not for thee]

So basically 3 years after it became national news and everyone agreed it was a problem, a small part of it finally gets fixed... by the private sector. Great argument against government power, that conservatives could capitalize on if they still cared about that sort of thing.

And that's why I'm still mostly libertarian.  Relying on government to get things done just isn't efficient.

[Since I'm the mad scientist proclaimed by myself]

You're really naive if you're shocked it took so long for a rich person to throw money at a public problem like this.

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

I haven't really kept up with this story in recent years -- why is this something that state agencies haven't been able to fix yet? It's not like this is an unknown, recent problem that we haven't had time to address. Serious answers only, please, no "herp derp government" arguments.

I still maintain that having a policy of waiting for uber-rich people to privately donate money to solve large public problems like this is a horrible default solution to these types of problems. But perhaps I could be persuaded by a very convincing argument (not that I'm expecting one on this site).