Interlocking dry-stack (mortarless) compressed-earth blocks are actually very earthquake resistant as one-story buildings. Dry-stack bricks and corrugated weat

Interlocking dry-stack (mortarless) compressed-earth blocks are actually very earthquake resistant as one-story buildings. Dry-stack bricks and corrugated weathering-steel roofs wouldn't be all that bad, even in well-developed economies. And the bricks would be reusable when the original structure is no longer needed. Restack the brick house onto pallets and wrap in plastic film; no bulldozer necessary. The alternating-cesspit outhouse is also an acceptable cheap sanitation solution. You don't really need to have the same high construction standards for rural poor counties as for rich urban counties. You're just preventing the former from using intermediate bootstrap technologies to reach a higher living standard.