The 5.4 quake in the Chino Hills, California, yesterday, hit an area that has been significantly suburbanized over the last decade (insert old fogey “I remember when …” speech here). Why was the damage so minimal?<\/p>\n
Largely because of building codes. These are some of the newest housing and retail areas in the state, and they were largely built to some of the toughest quake safety building codes in the nation, including stuff after the 1992 Northridge Quake. Market forces didn’t make that happen — people generally assume a house is built to some level of safety, and aside from very old houses, I suspect most people don’t ask for the quake protection specs of places they’re buying in California. As the market in earthquake insurance demonstrates, in a truly “free” market, most people would just cross their fingers and then dig out after a quake hits. But instead, based on a proven need to help public safety, the government (state and local) imposed a financial burden on builders (which, of course, they passed on to their customers). And, in this case, it worked. I strongly suspect the aggregate costs of those code requirements was lower than the damage (physical and social) that would have been done had there been no such code protections.<\/p>\n
I do believe in the power of free markets, and in the wisdom (in some areas) of those markets as an aggregation of consumer interests and choices. But there are certainly areas where it’s appropriate for the government (as our representatives) to step in and raise the bar for everyone. The markets are wisest in the short term and for immediate needs; for the long-term and for widespread societal health, they are rarely up to the job.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The 5.4 quake in the Chino Hills, California, yesterday, hit an area that has been significantly suburbanized over the last decade (insert old fogey “I remember when …” speech here)….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":30023,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/29\/the-quake-and-the-ks.html","url_meta":{"origin":13073,"position":0},"title":"The Quake and the Ks","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 29-Aug-12 3:47pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Since this particular quake was right in their neck of the woods, I pinged Jim & Ginger whether they had felt it:\"Yes and no - Jim did, on the coiuch, I did not standing in the kitchen. LOUD noise, no swinging of lights, waves in pool. Very strange.\"\"Did not even\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":44606,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/08\/25\/the-quake-in-napa.html","url_meta":{"origin":13073,"position":1},"title":"The Quake in Napa","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 25-Aug-14 8:53am","format":false,"excerpt":"It's a little surprising that so many wineries (and restaurants) were hit so strongly by the quake. Granted, a 6.0 is a big shake, bottles are fragile, and racks with wine barrels are damned heavy but California's requirements for securing things (and the constant drumbeat to do so) should have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20633,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/04\/03\/tweets-from-2011-04-03.html","url_meta":{"origin":13073,"position":2},"title":"Tweets from 2011-04-03","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 3-Apr-11 12:45am","format":false,"excerpt":"Greatly amused I was able to look up IBAN\/SWIFT numbers for wire xfer to Italy on my smartphone faster than bank folks could figure it out. # Went to Chianti Ristorante in DTC last night. Service was adequate, but the food (gnocchi, osso bucco) was to die for. Link #\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5356,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/04\/01\/shoot_grunt_wit.html","url_meta":{"origin":13073,"position":3},"title":"SHOOT GRUNT WITH SHOTGUN","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 1-Apr-04 10:55am","format":false,"excerpt":"Now this is ... um ... interesting. IF Quake is a port of id Software's Quake 1 engine to the Inform programming language. Inform is a language for creating Interactive...","rel":"","context":"In "Gaming"","block_context":{"text":"Gaming","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/gaming"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13076,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/07\/29\/rocking_chandeliers.html","url_meta":{"origin":13073,"position":4},"title":"Rocking chandeliers","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 29-Jul-08 12:44pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Earthquake in Pasadena. UPDATE: Well, you can't see the chandeliers rocking very well here. :-) Pretty much a solid jolt to the restaurant, as if a large truck had...","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/07\/29\/rocking_chandeliers.html#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3228\/2713887871_9af6700139.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":30472,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/04\/the-1906-san-francisco-quake-today.html","url_meta":{"origin":13073,"position":5},"title":"The 1906 San Francisco Quake Today","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 4-Oct-12 6:50am","format":false,"excerpt":"Through blended photos. \u00a0Very cool. Embedded Link Glimpses of the 1906 Earthquake Seen in Modern-Day Photos of San Francisco Two years ago, San Francisco-based photographer Shawn Clover began to create an amazing series of images, titled 1906 + 2010: The Earthquake Blend, featuring photographs captured during the devastatin... 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