Dueling Memes: Building Codes vs Milton Friedman When Comparing Quakes in Chile and Haiti

In January, a 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti and over 230,000 people tragically died. In February, a 8.8 earthquake hit Chile and over 700 people tragically died. Even though the earthquake that hit Chile was nearly 500 times more powerful than the one that hit Haiti (Earthquake magnitudes are measured on a logarithmic scale), Chile's death toll was only a tiny fraction of Haiti's. Why the difference?

The liberals point to building codes, regulation, and strong government involvement in society are the reason for the difference in death and destruction between the two states. On liberal talk radio, callers and hosts praise the communists who ruled Chile in the 1960's and forced business to adopt strict building codes. They praise the government building inspectors who work hard enforcing these regulations. And they point to the strong and active government in Chile that took control of the situation and told people where to go when the quake struck.

The BBC says this to explain the difference:

People in Chile knew the safest places to go to when the earthquake struck. Chile has developed a seismic design code for new buildings, which has made them better able to stay standing in an earthquake.

Huffington Post, where Obama gets his news and views from, explains the difference this way:

Chile was better prepared, with strict building codes, robust emergency response and a long history of handling seismic catastrophes.

Treehugger.com explicitly advocates the liberal view when it says:

Builders cut corners all the time, and are interested in building at the lowest possible cost. They are perfectly happy to shift the burden to the owners and the insurance companies. And occupants don't know risk either, and happily live in old brick unreinforced structures in the middle of earthquake zones. Building codes, and their proper enforcement, are about the only thing protecting them.

Conservatives point to free market and conservative economic policies that brought Chile from being one of the poorest countries in South America in 1970 to being the richest country in South America by 2010. This wealth, generated by liberty and respect to property rights, led to buildings that were built soundly with good materials. The respect for liberty and freedom in Chile led to a respect for rule of law, which meant that building inspectors were not bought off and codes were indeed followed.

Here is how the Wall Street Journal puts it:

It's not by chance that Chileans were living in houses of brick—and Haitians in houses of straw—when the wolf arrived to try to blow them down. In 1973, the year the proto-Chavista government of Salvador Allende was overthrown by Gen. Augusto Pinochet, Chile was an economic shambles. Inflation topped out at an annual rate of 1000%, foreign-currency reserves were totally depleted, and per capita GDP was roughly that of Peru and well below Argentina's.

In March 1975, Pinochet had a 45-minute meeting with Friedman and asked him to write a letter proposing some remedies. Friedman responded a month later with an eight-point proposal that largely mirrored the themes of the Chicago Boys- sharp reductions to government spending and the money supply; privatization of state-owned companies; the elimination of obstacles to free enterprise and foreign investment, and so on.

As for Chile, Pinochet appointed a succession of Chicago Boys to senior economic posts. By 1990, the year he ceded power, per capita GDP had risen by 40% (in 2005 dollars) even as Peru and Argentina stagnated. Pinochet's democratic successors—all of them nominally left-of-center—only deepened the liberalization drive. Result: Chileans have become South America's richest people. They have the continent's lowest level of corruption, the lowest infant-mortality rate, and the lowest number of people living below the poverty line.

Chile also has some of the world's strictest building codes. That makes sense for a country that straddles two massive tectonic plates. But having codes is one thing, enforcing them is another. The quality and consistency of enforcement is typically correlated to the wealth of nations. The poorer the country, the likelier people are to scrimp on rebar, or use poor quality concrete, or lie about compliance.

For all the talk about the morality of liberalism, look at the results of countries where liberal ideas are dominant- when government increases spending, when government takes on more debt, when government owns businesses or heavily regulates private businesses, where tariffs are increased and trade wars are elevated, where corruption and influence buying runs rampant, and when more government is the only solution for all of societies problems. Look at the results! You don't even need to look at other countries- look at what has happened to Michigan under Democrat control- or better yet, look at Detroit, where there are no Republicans to blame.

Conservative policies make the world a better place whenever they are tried. That's the difference between 700 dead and 230,000 dead- liberal policies.

UPDATE: Thank you for linking to this page Newmark's Door! Please look around my site and see what else interests you! And remember- the difference is liberal policies.