Quaking For Prosperity
Mother Nature, almost as much as intrusive government, is a force to be reckoned with and perhaps humanity will never be a match for either. Which is why we can be grateful that she chose not to thrust the torrent of her full force in Tuesday’s U.S. East Coast earthquake. There are no reported casualties and little damage.
The quake was not immaterial, though: 5.8 on the Richter scale, it qualifies as a “moderate” earthquake that can cause major damage to poorly constructed buildings over small regions and slight damage to well-designed buildings, as it did in Virginia and Washington, D.C.
And to place such in perspective, the 1960 Agadir earthquake in Morocco with a magnitude of 5.7, killed around 15,000 people (about a third of the city’s population at the time) and injured another 12,000 with at least 35,000 people left homeless.
Even today, in many parts of the globe, this earthquake would have caused widespread injury, death and homelessness. It is easy for us Americans to forget that we still live in a world where, in many parts, even a train derailment can destroy dozens, if not hundreds, of lives.
So why is this country so fortunate? The answer is quite simple: American prosperity. This country’s ability to build strong structures that can withstand epic natural disasters like the 1989 World Series Earthquake (63 reported deaths) or even Hurricane Katrina (under 2,000 reported deaths) is the direct result of our wealth-producing (read: private industry) segment of society that can at least mitigate the devastating effects of various natural disasters. And when they do occur, we can rebuild quicker than any other society in this world.
Yes, building codes as mandated by government play a part, but if there weren’t the resources (wealth) to adhere to such codes, government requirements would mean nothing.
This fact that a prosperous society, created and supported by free markets, is the best defense against the furies of Mother Nature and other worldly ills, is something that can’t be forgotten especially as national policy has and is being created based upon the premise that “the rich” and capitalism in general are unbridled sources of most social, environmental and economic ills that we face.
-I.M. Windee
