Hi Canie & Dennis,

1. People who live in impoverished countries have tremendous daily needs and their governments are nothing like here in America. Therefore part of the money they have goes to simply taking care of the essentials. Yes there are crooks, but there aren't any building safe codes either.

2. Remember I'm a licensed insurance agent. I offer earthquake insurance to everyone who buys homeowners or renter's insurance from me. Today there are two kinds of plans. A. The one the State of CA offers and B. A full protection type plan that matches the same coverages on your home and personal property. Amazingly there isn't a whole lot of difference in the price, but in coverage, we are talking chasms apart. The States plan covers your home, but not your garage. They only give you $5,000 for personal property loss and a mere $1500 for loss of use. You can bet if your house has considerable damage your personal property will have been damaged considerably and you'll be living somewhere else for months. All I say is if you can afford it, buy it.

3. A scientist once asked me if I could find a way to substantially reduce deaths from earthquakes, what affect would that have on the world? Would people then die of disease or other factors instead? A great question and one that has a profusion of answers. My reply was simply that if it became possible I would have to go with it and let nature take its course.

Petra