Competence is boring.  It’s just not newsworthy.  So I’m writing a story about it because a 5.1 magnitude earthquake just shook the Bay Area of California at 11:47 a.m. local time and nobody will really care because everyone is safe.

Why is everyone safe?  Because over decades–if not more than a century ago–California started putting into place regulations mandating building codes that improve the structural strength of buildings and other methods to ensure structures can withstand such a tremblor.  Centered about 4 miles below the surface, the quake will be found to have caused minor damage for the 7.7 million or so people who live in the Bay Area.

Over decades, liberal California leaders mandated new buildings have structural improvements included, such as joists that can sway in an earthquake and reduce–or even prevent altogether–damage.  They implemented zoning restrictions that prevent certain types of new construction on some of the most dangerous fault lines.  And they advise residents on what to do in an emergency.

Republicans like Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott think such regulations are government overreach and tyrannical.  How dare you demand that my house be reinforced against a hurricane!  How dare you tell me I can’t build a house on filled-in swampland!  If gubernatorial incompetence leads to an entire state losing power in a snowstorm, well, that’s just the cost of FREEDOM.

This is why Americans have to repeatedly bail out Florida and Texas and other “conservative” states so frequently:  Republican leaders want to hoard the profits of their lack of regulation while socializing the costs of their disasters, be they natural, man-made or economic.