Lack of morality in the economic and financial system has led to the death, from military adventures, of thousands overseas, and, domestically, from bad health care. But more will come, as long as the highest moral value is the so called "Anglo-Saxon free market capitalist system". Because it is what it boils down to.
WHEN VALUES, OR LACK THEREOF, BRING COLLAPSE TO ECONOMY, HOUSING...:
Simon Johnson observes in his blog, "The Baseline Scenario": "You cannot design a financial system that is immune to crash – this would be like declaring earthquakes illegal. But in the aftermath of unexpectedly high damage from a serious earthquake, it makes sense to completely overhaul your building code and retrofit vulnerable buildings. In fact, if you largely ignored what the earthquake revealed in terms of structural weakness, wouldn't that be negligence?" (June 25, 2009).
Well, let's talk about earthquakes and negligence. Pondering the philosophy of earthquakes, so to speak, has been one of my preferred themes. It is very revealing of what really matters in the sociopsychology of the USA, and how the plutocracy controls hearts and minds, let alone the entire economy.
Speaking of earthquakes, indeed, California is grossly unprepared (building codes are grossly inappropriate, and well known to be so: an engineer specializing in building inspections told me coolly that he expected major buildings to collapse, or become uninhabitable).
Several big earthquakes are expected anytime in the Golden State, and, if they struck in metro areas, they could kill many thousands (maybe up to 50,000; one earthquake of more than 7 Richter is due in the central San Francisco Bay Area, population 7 million). The Cascadia plate, along the Oregon and Washington states, just north, released in January 1700 a giant Richter 9 quake that struck Japan with a tsunami a few hours later. That is also coming due again.
And what is being done? Well, the city of San Francisco has admitted that many thousands homes should collapse (due to their pathetically weak garages in front and below). And one is just waiting for the city to do something about it. The other 100 cities or so around the San Francisco Bay are doing nothing, though. Although t, ironically, doing something about it would help the local economy considerably (11.5% unemployment in California, May 2009, with a huge crater in housing). This is a case where a city, state, and, or, federal mandate for more strongly built homes would enforce construction, spurring the economy, and saving thousands tomorrow.
So why is nothing being done? Probably because construction by the people for the people does not particularly fascinate the plutocracy (which is very strong in the Bay Area). And the plutocracy, in the USA, per its obsessional control of the media, decides what is fascinating, and what is not. Then common people get fascinated accordingly to what their minders decided. What's in it for the oligarchy in getting ready for earthquakes? Nothing much.
Plutocrats live somewhere else in much better homes, and when they have children, these very special children go to special schools financed by special taxes and special "charities", which make plutocrats feel good about their own generosity to themselves, justifying ever lower taxes for themselves, considering their generosity. Actually, come to think of it, spending money on housing for normal people would be as much money not going to banks, their bankers, and their shadows, or other fundamental elements of the oligarchy. That would cause a serious dent to the so called "Anglo-Saxon free market capitalist system". What could be worse?
Patrice Ayme
http://patriceayme.wordpress.com/
Notes: 1) Buildings can be made earthquake proof. It is just a matter of spending enough. After about 6,434 people were killed in the Kobe quake, Japan tightened its building codes. Consequence: two strong Richter 7 quakes recently killed very few people, although they struck cities, and entire hillsides collapsed in the wilderness. So, although earthquakes have not been made illegal in Japan, disastrous consequences from basic strong quakes have been. (Functioning nuclear plants were located near, and even on (!), the faults at fault, but did OK.)
- Brand new homes with just one little beam in the four car garage to support an entire 4,000 square foot house are being built, less than a mile from the Hayward fault in the Bay Area (known to generate giant quakes, and overdue for some more).