A Close Look at Haitian Poverty

7 thoughts on “A Close Look at Haitian Poverty”

1. For the record, most aid skeptics don’t locate foreign aid as *the* root cause of the developing world’s problems. Colonialism, conflict-ridden histories, cultural and geographic factors, and a host of other issues have obviously done more to create human misery than, say, food shipments. The central criticism of foreign aid is simply that it’s an ineffective way to help countries overcome pre-existing problems.Report

   1. Good point, Will, and a point that I’m fairly sympathetic to, at least in many situations. It’s probably worth my remembering that dependency theory in the foreign aid arena is a different animal than it is in the domestic policy arena, with a close relationship to critiques of colonialism.Report

2. So then what is the solution? Haiti sounds like a lot of other third-world countries in that it is a political construct with no consideration given to geography. So what do we do? Forcibly exhile the inhabitants?Report

   1. I don’t know – but it seems important to get the causes right if we’re going to get the answers right.Report

   2. Except for giving them aid to get themselves back on their feet after this disaster, how about we leave them alone? It is not our job to fix the world.Report

   3. My own suggestions:
      -Sign immediate free trade agreement with them, unilateral if necessary though I doubt they have enough government left to actually levy tarrifs against us.
      -Monitor aid carefully and try to keep it from transforming from a lifeline to an umbilical cord.Report

3. That brief column is your idea of a definitive statement on the deteriminants of a country’s economic and social history, one that “pretty much destroys any notion that” blah blah blah? What would you consider a non-persuasive statement?Report

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