" Government grows from crises.
In the wake of the Great Texas Blackout, the foregone reliability path of greater market reliance–a true free market absent state and federal regulation and regulators–deserves serious debate.
For students of crises in free societies, the Texas power debacle offers another example of civil society stepping up where government is unable or unwilling to do so.
... Texas residents turned to community organizers for assistance during the storm due to the government’s failures.
“Nobody was expecting this breakdown of state infrastructure and the lack of resources provided by the government,” ...
“A lot of the work that’s being done is through mutual aid, through community organizing, and things like that to really work through the community and help people.”
The preeminent Texas grocery chain, H-E-B, also has received kudos ...
H-E-B generators running on natural gas kept the supply chain open, but a store that lost power let customers take groceries for free during the emergency.
... H-E-B keeps its customers fed, if not comfortable, when a crisis hits.
And they remember — which is one reason the company gets high marks on customer loyalty and reputation surveys year after year.
That’s also why, early in a pandemic or during a freak winter storm, so many Texans look to H-E-B almost as a de facto arm of government.
It’s not.
It’s a company that knows its customers and their needs intimately and as a result, it’s one of the most successful chains in a low-margin industry.
It’s a master at selling groceries and pharmaceuticals, not at governing.
This recent experience is not an outlier.
It was a key takeaway from the Hurricane Katrina disaster of 2005.
In April 2020, the same lessons were brought to bear on the COVID pandemic as an alternative to brute-force stimulus programs:
Societies across time and geographical location have endured and recovered from the death, destruction, and displacement brought on by profound crises such as hurricanes, famines, and war.
Our extensive research on community response and recovery after disasters has shown that commercial and social entrepreneurs are key drivers of disaster response and recovery.
... Policymakers should give entrepreneurs the space to act in the midst of crises by expanding the notion of “essential” goods and services, suspending or removing regulations that stand in the way of entrepreneurial efforts, and avoiding confusing or conflicting policies.
Government grows from crises.
In the wake of the Great Texas Blackout, the foregone reliability path of greater market reliance–a true free market absent state and federal regulation and regulators–deserves serious debate."