31/12/2004 12:42:53 pm
Wealth Prevents Disasters. A few days ago, I wrote that rich countries probably are much better at protecting people from natural catastrophes and take care of people. I doubted, however, that the difference would be as large as we might hope - since people everywhere tend to regard unlikely events as things that will not happen. The graph below, from Action Aid, seems to contradict that and show that wealth matters fundamentally. One counterargument may be that the rich countries are situated in places with few natrural disasters. Perhaps it has some relevance, but history shows that the rich countries of today got worse hit before they became rich: The 1906 San Francisco earthquake (and the subsequent fire) killed at least 3,000 people out of a population of about 400 000. The 1994 quake in the same area killed only 60, out of a population that had almost doubled. Over 8 000 people in the Galveston, Texas area died in the hurricane of 1900, but hurricane Andrew?s 1992 path through a much more heavily populated Florida killed only 40 people. Thus, the graph stresses the importance of a growing economy - and thereby a free economy - to be able to protect citizens and save lives in disasters.