Economics Handling an epic crisis requires a swift response and a high level of organization and efficiency. It also requires the ability to meet the needs of a large number of stakeholders, whose situations and needs might be quite diverse in nature. A capitalist economic system should have a fairly high level of efficiency, but that efficiency tends to develop over time -- you don't become Wal-Mart overnight. During Katrina, one of the first companies on the scene was FedEx, which used is high level of organization and efficiency to provide goods to the area (FedEx, 2005). The drawback to this system is that while it allows for altruism and community service, it is not oriented towards it. FedEx can deliver medical supplies but it cannot reunite families or repair damaged neighborhoods. While in theory there could be a private disaster-relief company that operates privately, in practice the payer is going to be government. And where government cannot pay -- Haiti for example - such a system would be hopeless. But in a country like Haiti where government is inept, a socialist or even Communist system would also be useless.

A more socialistic economic system...

Here's why: disaster relief tends to be a public good anyway. It is something that is typically socialized. Various branches of the military often make strong contributions, and disaster relief agencies are usually charged with things like coordination. Volunteer groups -- encouraged equally under capitalism and socialism -- are also major players in disaster relief. Further, there is nothing inherently inefficient about government-run services (i.e. The military). They are more directly oriented towards things like disaster relief, but again as a public good they are not going to be private companies anyway. The bottom line is that disaster relief is about good management, training, organization and responsiveness. This is something that can exist in any economic system. The question of payment is moot since government is always going to be the payer, even when disaster relief is done on a for-profit basis. If anything, the profit element in for-profit disaster relief represents the most significant inefficiency -- look to the skyrocketing costs of health insurance, the prison system or other forms of…