An interesting comparison between Japan and Haiti in response to disaster

A subsistence economy like Haiti, one might conclude, is more resilient than Japan. Or, by the same logic, the rich America of today is more vulnerable to economic depression than the rural America of 1930. Neither is true, of course. Another obvious benefit of trade is that help can come from outside.

Here we get a hint of the survivalist instinct's fundamental error. In focusing on extreme situations, it forgets about the capacities built up during less-stressful times. Self-sufficiency limits knowledge and productive skills to whatever a single individual or locality can comprehend. Specialization and trade allow the system to expand those capabilities almost without limit. What looks like ignorance permits the growth of knowledge.

Read the whole thing