Would you rather have $200,000 or your hovel back?

Ed Glaser suggests that it may be cheaper and wiser to give displaced New Orleans resident a voucher than it would be to rebuild the city. He writes

To put the numbers in context, imagine that we were to spend $100 billion
dollars on infrastructure for the residents of the city. An alternative to
this spending is to give each one of the city of New Orleans’ residents a
check for more than $200,000.

Annual per capita income in that city is less than $20,000, so this
check would amount to ten years’ income, on average—a hefty, and potentially
life-changing sum. That is enough to send several children to college, to buy
a modest home, and/or to relocate and start a dreamed-of business.

(Hat tip to Dennis Sullivan)