Economic development vs. undevelopment affects lives. The populations of undeveloped countries live close to the subsistence level, often one drought, poor growing season or other exogenous event away from famine. But economic development does more than assure ample food production. It is often the difference between life and death in a number of ways. Recent tragic events in Haiti and Chile demonstrated only too clearly the advantages of a productive versus an unproductive economy.
Bret Stephens in The Wall Street Journal focused on building quality and stated: “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.” The more wealth a country has, the more options it has. That is why poor countries tend to be worse polluters than rich ones. Clean air is a luxury good that persons barely eking out a subsistence living can afford. So too, are houses built to withstand hundred-year events.
Stephens editorial deals with Milton Friedman’s oft-criticized role in helping Chile rebuild its economy and some of the loonie left criticisms that were leveled at him.
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[...] Earthquakes, Economics and Friedman By Monty Pelerin, posted March 2nd, 2010 http://www.economicnoise.com/2010/03/02/earthquakes-economics-and-friedman/ [...]