Commandeering Private Property

Tom writes:

You wrote a sentence in your article, “No Gas, No Food, No Lodging” that I just couldn’t believe: “Commandeering private property is the act of a civilized nation, not the leaner, meaner, tough-break United States.” I guess by “civilized nation,” you meant Stalinist Russia or “The People’s Revolution” Red China, not a nation that I would normally think of as civilized. I guess next disaster, we’ll send FEMA to fetch your family’s SUV, that’d rescue about six people who otherwise wouldn’t have the transportation and you shouldn’t be having it anyway, it pollutes to much and is too much of a gas hog in an energy crisis. And while we’re at it, we can move all of you into a tent in your back yard, the rest of the rooms in your house will do very nicely as housing for the indigent who will need the shelter more than you do.
Thanks to the example set by this kind of disaster, I am carefully stockpiling emergency food, water, and medical supplies, which I expect to use not only for myself and for my loved ones, but also judiciously for others in the community who may need special help. But to hear you, I’d probably better not spend my time and my money, as the “civilized” solution would be for FEMA to simply come in and take it all away from me and give to others who had no foresight to plan for their own safety.
“Commandeering private property” probably sounds nice from up in a Marxist ivory tower, but when the armed military is walking up your driveway, it’s probably not quite the good idea you thought it was.

I was of course referring to commandeering corporate property, specifically Greyhound buses, to evacuate flood victims from New Orleans. But, while I share a bit of the survivalist/look out for numero uno mentality myself, I ultimately think it’s better for the guvmint to take your SUV to make repeat trips back and forth out of a flood zone than it is to be used for you and yours on a one-way journey.