"What would it take for them to get off their collective asses and do for themselves."
Answer: nothing. They're not going to because they don't have to.
My husband took a trip into the NO area and drove around. He said the suburbs were a bustle of activity. People working everywhere on their homes, some had hired workers helping them while others were doing the work themselves. He drove into NO to his old neighborhood and surrounding area - and guess what - there was NO ONE working on anything. He said those neighborhoods looked like ghost towns. THEN he went to a relative's house where he was staying for the night and on lo and behold - on the news they were interviewing someone from one of the very areas he had driven through and they were complaining and asking when was the government going to come in and fix their houses! My patience is wearing thin with people who have this type of entitlement mentality.
It's a scenario that is repeated time and again, yet the victimhood supporters are willing to ignore the evidence.