Man has a hand in natural disasters
China and Myanmar's death tolls from disasters continue to rise, thanks partially to a lack of shelter. Will Wilkinson says the poverty that exposes people to nature's dangers requires a human hand.
Commentator Will Wilkinson (The Cato Institute)
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TEXT OF COMMENTARY
Scott Jagow: Today, China said the death toll from last week's earthquake is now 41,000 and growing. To the south in Myanmar -- or Burma - 134,000 people are dead or missing because of a cyclone two weeks ago. Commentator Will Wilkinson says these aren't just natural disasters -- they're also man-made.
Will Wilkinson: The poverty that exposes people to nature's dangers also kills. And that kind of poverty is no inevitability. It requires a human hand.
Back in the early 1950's, Burma was the wealthiest nation in Southeast Asia. But today, after a half-century of socialism and authoritarian rule, it's one of the poorest countries in the world.
When a regime mows down a gathering of political protestors, we sit up and take notice. But when it actively impoverishes its people with economic policies long ago proven harmful, we're too willing to see this not as a choice to which men may be held accountable, but as a natural fact, under no one's control.
So it wasn't fated that tens of thousands of Burmese would have so little shelter from the storm. They could have been richer, safer.
In 1995, an earthquake rocked wealthy Kobe, Japan, ranking as the most expensive natural disaster in history. Yet only 6,400 lives were lost.
Compare the Sizchuan earthquake. Catastrophe modeling firm AIR estimates total damages will exceed $20 billion, only about one-tenth the economic loss of the Kobe earthquake. But the human toll is over five times greater.
China, thankfully, is on its way up the growth path to higher ground. Burma? Well, it's a tragic illustration that natural disasters are all disaster, and only part natural.
Economic growth creates roofs that don't blow away, walls that don't crumble, hospitals to tend the sick, and generators to keep to the ventilators on. The self-dealing thugs that botch the institutions of growth don't just keep their people poor. They keep them vulnerable, exposed.
Jagow: Will Wilkinson is a research fellow at the Cato Institute.
Comments
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From CA, 05/22/2008
I agree with Dan Ness. Man made catastrophe has NOTHING to do with economica, and EVERYTHING to do with planning. After all, it's the earthquake codes that keep buildings safe in California, and it was the Army Corps of Engineers' errors in building levies in New Orleans that created that catastrophe. Both things happened in the USA, a rich country with many years of economic growth.
Marketplace ought not to air pieces. like this one, that are completely wrong in content. Cato "scholars", as a rule of thumb, have nothing worth saying.
From MA, 05/22/2008
Finally someone who does NOT blame GOD for all our ills.
From Arlington, VA, 05/21/2008
Wilkinson has responded to the comments on his blog.
From Milwaukee, WI, 05/21/2008
To blame these awful disasters on socialism is truly a stretch. Wilkinson, of course, is correct to say that corruption and dictatorial policies may have exacerbated these the tragic results. Corruption and dictatorships are not restricted to socialistic societies. You'd hardly see the traditionally socialistic nation of Sweden falling into such a disaster. Why indeed would Wilkinson even mention socialism as an issue other than to further the Cato Institute's goals of permitting unfettered capitalism? And, why even use Cato materials without a disclaimer as to its ongoing bias?
05/21/2008
Will Wilkinson brings up a real point. Every disaster has man's hand in it. People would always say it was global warming and that is true. But man's manipulation of people and ignorance have begun to become a constant source of agitation of natural disasters.
From Leucadia, CA, 05/21/2008
Mr. Wilkinson makes his point clear that natural disasters are made worse by poor human planning, especially in corrupt self-dealing economies. It's tragic what's happened in China and Burma/Myanmar. However, I'm surprised Mr. Wilkinson didn't cite Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. After all, in that tragedy roofs did blow away, hospitals were unprepared, and generators failed. We don't need to point afar to find examples of botched institutions or systemically vulnerable people.
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