Right-wing Dictators Are Good For Earthquake Safety

Why was the damage from this weekend’s earthquake in Chile so much less destructive than the recent tragedy in Haiti? The Wall Street Journal editorial page has a theory!

One reason is luck, as the quake hit offshore and away from populated areas, save for the city of Concepcion. But even in that city of one million, the death toll might have been worse. That it wasn’t is due in part to Chile’s stricter building codes, which have been developed over long experience with quakes along the Eastern Pacific fault line. Chileans have prepared well for the big one.

But such preparation is also the luxury of a prosperous country, in contrast to destitute and ill-governed Haiti. Chile has benefited enormously in recent decades from the free-market reforms it passed in the 1970s under dictator Augusto Pinochet. While Chileans still disagree about Pinochet’s political actions, they have not repealed most of that era’s economic opening to the world.

Yes! Thank you, Augusto Pinochet. I’m sure that the 200,000 people estimated to have been traumatized during your coup and subsequent reign of terror are deeply appreciative of the way your economic policies helped prevent a bigger tragedy. I mean, at least the ones who weren’t killed back then.