> Our free markets have no smart way of pricing that kind of [potential disease catastrophe].
So true. Ireland's devastating "potato famine" was another example of the catastrophe that can result from free-market-drive overdependence on a single monoculture --- in this case the "lumper" potato variety, which was susceptible to the Phytophthora infestans blight --- with no genetic diversity [1]. It's estimated that the famine led to the death or emigration (in roughly equal numbers) of some 20% of the island's population [2].
(One of my grandmothers was first-generation Irish-American; I remember her telling stories of the famine that she'd heard passed down in her family.)
So true. Ireland's devastating "potato famine" was another example of the catastrophe that can result from free-market-drive overdependence on a single monoculture --- in this case the "lumper" potato variety, which was susceptible to the Phytophthora infestans blight --- with no genetic diversity [1]. It's estimated that the famine led to the death or emigration (in roughly equal numbers) of some 20% of the island's population [2].
(One of my grandmothers was first-generation Irish-American; I remember her telling stories of the famine that she'd heard passed down in her family.)
[1] http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/agriculture...
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_(Ireland)#Blight_i...