最善の防災対策

災害時に人々が一番心配するのは電力供給。純粋な民間企業なら利用者のニーズを最優先し、あらゆる努力や工夫をして電気を届けるだろう。しかし実際の電力会社は、政府監督下の独占企業。何かあるとすぐ停電し、それが当然と思われている。
The main concern of everyone is electricity, a service provided not by private enterprise, but by a monopoly under the supervision of government...Imagine such a service as provided purely by private enterprise. Surely the first order of business would be to create an energy flow that managed to stay on during an emergency. The problem would be overcome by entrepreneurs and capitalists, chiefly because the consumer is king. With electricity, however, we all just accept the fact that it goes down in a storm and we must wait for the bureaucracy to supervise its turning on.
https://mises.org/library/crisis-markets-more-ever

経済成長を遂げた国は、自然災害による死者数を減らせる。経済成長をするには、国民に市場取引を自由にさせ、政府が邪魔しないことである。政府の権限拡大は、たとえ善意に基づく防災対策であっても、災害犠牲者を減らす最良の道である経済成長を阻害する。
Countries that experience economic growth are putting themselves in a better position to reduce the number of deaths that result from natural cataclysms, and the clearest way to produce that economic growth is to allow people to interact in the marketplace without government intrusion. Expanding the role of the state, even with well-intended disaster-prevention programs, diminishes the economic growth that would most effectively reduce death rates.
https://mises.org/library/government-enhanced-disaster

最善の防災対策は、公共セクターの拡大ではなく、富の創造である。…戦争と自然災害は経済に良くない。財産権制度とそれが生み出す自律性、自由貿易とそれがもたらす社会的な協力こそ、長い目で戦争と自然災害に備える最善の保険である。
It is also clear that the best protection against natural disasters is not an expansion if the public sector on an international basis, but wealth creation...War and natural disasters are not good for the economy. The evolution of property rights institutions and the autonomy they engender, as well as free trade and the social cooperation it engenders, are the human race's best long-term insurance against both.
https://mises.org/library/are-tsunamis-good-economy

富の破壊は良いことではない。社会はその分の価値を失う。ところがハリケーンが襲ったとき、政府やメディアは逆の主張をした。「GDPに正味でプラス。一時の成長低下は復興による経済活動で埋め合わせられる」（エコノミスト誌）など。
It is not a good thing to destroy wealth. Bastiat puts it this way: "Society loses the value of things which are uselessly destroyed."...And The Economist said, "While big hurricanes like Katrina destroy wealth, they often have a net positive effect on GDP growth, as the temporary downturn immediately after the storm is more than made up for by the burst of economic activity that takes place when the rebuilding begins."
https://mises.org/library/broken-window-fallacy-reapplied

災害時などの便乗値上げは、市場に受け入れられる価格を付けるにすぎない。もしそれが不道徳なら、経済環境の変化に応じて価格を変えることはすべて不道徳になり、市場そのものが不道徳ということになる。それはおかしい。
"Price gouging" is nothing more than charging what the market will bear. If that's immoral, then all market adjustment to changing circumstances is "immoral," and markets per se are immoral. But that is not the case.
https://mises.org/library/price-gouging-saves-lives-hurricane