While Gov. Jerry Brown blames the horrific death toll from California’s late-season wildfires, he and the state’s lawmakers have done little to discourage people from building homes in high-risk wildfire zones known as the wildland-urban interface (WUI). By shifting the cost of wildfire prevention and protection to general taxpayers, they send the wrong signals about risk to WUI homeowners.

Hoover Institution fellow Richard Epstein discusses his Defining Ideas article "California’s Forest Fire Tragedy."

The expression “Everything in life is a trade-off” dates so far back the original attribution is uncertain. It summarizes why there are no easy or final answers to many questions. Economist Thomas Sowell said, “There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs.”