#john mutter

The world is a very uneven place. If you land an earthquake in a poor place, the outcome is sure to be different from the outcome if it hits a rich place. At least 100,000 people died in the Haiti earthquake in 2010. For Superstorm Sandy, the best estimate is that 171 people died in total. Most people were more inconvenienced by Sandy than seriously impacted. In poor countries, residential and commercial structures are relatively weak, and institutions to ensure otherwise don't exist—or, if they exist, they don't function well. After the Haiti earthquake, people said there were no building codes. There were building codes, just no ability to enforce them. What confuses people is that so-called economic losses are greater in wealthy countries, but that is simply because the capital stock has greater value. It says nothing about the ability of a country to absorb a disaster shock.