Sending shoes to Haiti is how not to help. Fortunately, with notable exceptions, this message is getting out. A lot of attention, however, is still being given to debt relief. David Roodman at the Center for Global Development argues that this is merely a more sophisticated version of sending shoes. Haiti's interest charges are on the order of $9 million a year. Sure, holding off on the interest charges is a no-brainer, but the effort going into debt relief far exceeds the potential gains from simple aid not to mention immigration and trade relief. Here, from Roodman, is his argument in a graph:
How ’bout an inverse tariff tied to immigration numbers?
Are we trying to help “Haiti” or just some “Haitians?”
Permitting more Haitians to immigrate to the USA will certainly make it easier for us to support them, and for them to receive support, through our existing social-welfare schemes (many of which, e.g., Food Stamps, operate only within our borders), but obviously won’t do much for “Haiti” as such (some immigrants might send money (“remittances”) to relatives or friends in Haiti).
Since Haitian society operates at the Malthusian limit, it is nearly certain that removing some Haitians to the USA will have no lasting effect on “Haiti.” A brief respite from population pressure might be pleasant for the people who remain in Haiti, but the temporary improvement in per-capita food consumption (as the left-behind Haitians eat what would have been the émigrés’ shares) will simply be translated to more births and lower infant/child mortality, so in a few years Haiti will be as overpopulated and destitute as ever (back at Malthus’ limit again).
“Allowing Haitians to immigrate to the USA” will do approximately nothing for Haiti. On the other hand, it will greatly harm the USA to bring in a large number of welfare-eating, leftist-voting, uneducated, low-social-capital, low-IQ, high-criminal-propensity immigrants from Haiti whose descendants will nearly all remain in the permanent American underclass.*
Why do you push a policy which we know, ex-ante, will produce ill-effects here without even any offsetting good effects there?
*Don’t say they won’t. You don’t even know how to move people out of the current American underclass, much less how to keep people of similar ethnic background with noticeably lower human capital from joining that underclass.
I don’t think it makes a big difference. And of course WE GOTTA DO SOMETHING.However the “poorest country in the hemisphere” nickname is so often used that it is stuck in people’s mind while they may not see opportunities offered by the country. For instance, I am pretty sure that some telecommunications companies didn’t look at Haiti because of the “poorest country” tag, while Digicel has proved that they were wrong.
@Veracitor
I’m sorry where you trying to get credit for the US not having the crappy government Haiti did for 200 years? Because it sounds like you were. You did not earn the privilege of growing up in a country that was never run by the Duvaliers or the US Marine Corps. It was pure luck.
Thanks BTW for characterising an entire people in such a derogatory fashion without meeting any. I guarantee you 90% of Haitian immigrants work harder than you and very few would be on welfare for long. They move to the US to EARN just like almost every other immigrant, but keep your prejudices they no doubt comfort you.
Yes, that’s cool. The device is amazing! Waiting for your next one!
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Shoes certainly aren’t going to help Haiti’s debt relief unless they are used to pay the interest. The real issue is that there are too many hands in the pot that needs removing first.
o The above statement is seen to be contradictory. The situation is very critical and need an experience complainer to resolve it.
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ryantyler111
Debt Management
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