Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink

I remember riding with an acquaintance a long while back to play some roundball when someone tapped the back of his bumper.  The first words out of his mouth were, "Do you think we can get some money out of this?"  That's the last time I played basketball with that guy, but I've witnessed that behavior countless times in people since.  There should be a special place in hell for those "working the system."  These are people whose only sense of morality is "help me good, hurt me bad," and manage to rationalize their self-centered greed with all sorts of twisted justifications. 

While there's a million examples of this behavior, and one doesn't have to look too far to find it at tax time, I'm thinking about FEMA right now, as we've recently gone through some flooding in this area (the picture is of four nearby fields at which my son sometimes plays soccer and baseball).  We've all read about all those opportunistic scoundrels who took advantage of the New Orleans disaster to get tons of money undeservedly or spent it in improper ways, scamming the government or the well-intentioned for their own evil profit.  I even know someone who used FEMA money in California (of course) to pay for a boob job.  I don't think that P.T. Barnum actually said anything about suckers, but the quote, "There's a sucker born every minute, and two to take him," comes to mind in pondering all the people trying to take advantage of individuals and governments in times of crisis.  I guess it's the same reason that we have to lock our doors at night and when we're away, and even then it's not enough.