"Tax breaks for earthquakes"

" \r\n Tax breaks for earthquakes \r\nThe earthquakes that struck southern Turkey and northern Syria in the early hours of February 6 wreaked havoc. At time of writing, more than 50,000 people are known to have died as a result. Millions have been displaced and left homeless by the destruction of property.\r\n\r\nAs humanitarian and response efforts continue on the ground, a longer-term question is raised. How should the world respond to these natural disasters, and what can we learn from previous relief efforts that have gone wrong?\r\n\r\nOur technological capacity to respond to natural disasters is the best it has ever been, but modern disaster relief efforts have been mired in corruption and mismanagement. The exceptional mismanagement of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in\u00a0New Orleans in\u00a02005 and\u00a0the 2010 earthquake in Haiti\u00a0are cases in point.\r\n\r\nOn top of that, climate change is only making natural disasters worse. According to estimates by the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) \u2014 an intergovernmental non-treaty organisation of 58 developing nations most threatened by climate change representing some 1.5 billion people worldwide \u2014 there will be up to 3.4 million deaths per year attributable to climate change\u00a0by the end of the century.\r\n\r\n The earthquake of 17AD in Western Anatolia \r\n\r\nThe root cause of both climate change and our inability to respond to disasters is the same: short-term thinking.\r\n\r\nExperts are constantly presenting plans to rethink the paradigms of disaster relief.\u00a0Despite this, the problems only get worse. Perhaps what we really need is a return to the basics.\r\n\r\nWhen looking for insight into how best to respond to disasters, the Roman Empire is a good place to start.\r\n\r\nLike us, the Romans faced many deadly natural disasters.\u00a0One particularly deadly earthquake shows just how well the Romans could respond: the Western Anatolian earthquake of 17AD, when\u00a0the empire was at the height of its power and stability under the reign of Tiberius.\r\n\r\nThe gods, the Romans believed, sent a massive earthquake to\u00a0punish them for their hubris, destroying\u00a0the densely populated region of Western Anatolia (now Turkey).\r\n\r\nOur most complete records of what unfolded come from the hands of Tacitus, a historian who was the region\u2019s governor a century after the disaster. Tacitus built his records around the second-hand accounts told by descendants of the survivors.\r\n\r\nHere is an excerpt\u00a0recounting the events from his Annals of Imperial Rome, as translated in 1956 by historian Michael Grant:\r\n\r\n\u201cTwelve famous cities in the province of Asia were overwhelmed by an earthquake. Its occurrence at night increased the surprise and destruction. Open ground \u2014 the usual refuge on such occasions \u2014 afforded no escape, because the earth parted and swallowed the fugitives. I heard stories about entire mountains collapsing; and flat earth rising to become hills. Fires raged through the debris, burning the survivors.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe Roman geographer and naturalist Pliny the Elder, who was born five years after the earthquake, grew up hearing stories about the carnage. He called it the \u201cgreatest earthquake which has occurred in our memory\u201d, noting that \u201c12 cities of Asia were laid prostrate in one night\u201d.\r\n\r\nIn 2015, a team of Turkish\u00a0 geologists and archeologists surveyed \u00a0the ancient city of Kibyra to assess the damage caused by the earthquake. They found that a Roman stadium suffered significant earthquake-caused structural damage. Dozens of massive marble blocks had fallen over. \u201cMarble blocks of such a size, 75cm in width, 45cm in height, and up to 150cm in length would have needed considerable force to move them.\u201d By analysing the displacement of the marble blocks, they concluded that the earthquake was at least a seven on the MSK scale, making it roughly equivalent to the 2010 Haiti earthquake.\r\n\r\n Recovery, reconstruction and tax breaks \r\n\r\nThe emperor Tiberius was notoriously stingy. He spent most of his 22-year reign cutting budgets, increasing taxes and reducing the Roman deficit. He famously built only two public buildings, both of which were notable only for how modest they were.\r\n\r\nThroughout his reign, he refused to give money to the provinces for any purpose whatsoever, with the only exception being for the rebuilding after the Western Anatolian earthquake. According to the Roman historian Suetonius, several decades later:\u00a0\u201cThe only free money grant any province got from him was when an earthquake destroyed some cities in Asia Minor.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe city of Sardis received a significant portion of this money. Tacitus explains:\u00a0\u201cSardis suffered the worst and attracted the most sympathy. Tiberius promised it 10 million sesterces [silver coins] and remitted all taxation by the Treasury or its imperially controlled branches for five years.\u201d\r\n\r\nAlthough only a handful of cities received direct relief, almost all were exempted from all taxation for five years. Tacitus writes:\r\n\r\n\u201cExemptions from direct taxation were also authorised for Temnus, Philadelphia, Aegae, Apollonis, Mostene, Hierocaesarea, Myrina, Cume and Tmolus.\u201d\r\n\r\nTiberius feared that corruption would result in the relief funds being plundered for private purposes.\u00a0Velleius Paterculus, a\u00a0Roman senator and contemporary of Tiberius, noted in his memoirs that the emperor also made an effort to strictly punish corrupt officials during the reconstruction effort.\u00a0These anti-corruption efforts appear to have worked, as many reports from the time suggest that the funds were well spent, and no reports cited funds being misused.\r\n\r\nFinally, private charity also played a vital role in rebuilding Western Anatolia.\r\n\r\nTacitus notes: \u201cTiberius supplemented this impressive official generosity by an equally welcome private benefaction\u201d.\r\n\r\nTiberius made speeches urging wealthy Romans from around the empire to make charitable contributions to help Anatolia, and donated some of his own wealth during these efforts. When several wealthy landowners in Rome died without heirs in the months following the disaster, their estates were donated for the reconstruction effort.\r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n "

"Tax breaks for earthquakes"

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