This reads like one of Rand Paul’s nightmares.
Over the years, Japan has spent billions of dollars developing the most advanced technology against earthquakes and tsunamis…
…Local authorities can usually contact residents directly through warning systems set up in each home; footpaths and other escape routes leading to higher ground tend to be clearly marked.
In the country that gave the world the word tsunami, Japan, especially in the 1980’s and 1990’s, built concrete seawalls in many communities, some as high as 40 feet. In addition, some coastal towns have set up networks of sensors that can sound alarms in every residence and automatically closed floodgates when an earthquake strikes to prevent waves from surging up rivers.
Imagine the tyranny involved in having the government install an alarm in your house!! And what business does the government have marking footpaths? Blowing money on seawalls and censors is just so much government waste. I bet there isn’t a functioning toilet in the entirety of Japan.
Actually, the Japanese have amazing toilets.
really? What, are they jet-powered?
And all of them are smarter than Rand Paul.
For traditional Japanese toilets (as opposed to Western ones, which are now in wide use, often heated and with bidets), one squats. I can imagine Rand getting really upset about that.
I know this is snark but I think Rand really would prefer that society be constructed more like Indonesia (which is also vulnerable to tsunamis and when they hit, hit the poor hardest) than Japan. In countries without pristine building codes, rich and powerful will expend their own resources on constructing buildings and buying land that protects them from natural disasters. Meanwhile the poor end up vulnerable, living in unsafe houses, in unsafe areas, and more likely to die or lose their home. I think he would say that’s fairer than taxing the wealthy to have the government pay for bureaucrats to write and enforce building codes. I guess the question is, what’s crazier- the fact that Rand thinks that way or that over 50% of Kentucky voters don’t really disagree.
I’m sure the Japanese will get the same kind of sympathy from the compassionate conservatives which was given to the people of New Orleans.
I can imagine a response like……“Hey, you decided to live in fucking earthquake country!! Don’t expect the government to come and wipe your ass or help you out when the shit hits the fan.” You knew the risks. Suck it up! You’re on your own!
I’m pretty sure the free market would’ve found an impossibly effective solution to this. Involving free market fairies.
Remember When Bobby Jindal made fun of volcano monitoring? Republicans didn’t use to be this nutty. They used to disagree with Democrats about the proper role of government, but both sides took for granted it did have a role, beyond the military.