The Daily Capitalist: Capitalism Saves Lives, and Haiti is Proof

» Local wrote on 01.16.10 @ 10:01 PM

Jeff, you may want to read up on the history of Haiti and how our U.S. Capitalist system altered their country. Until 1924 Haiti was the world’s largest producer of sugar in the world, all farmed and harvested by the local population. U.S. Agribusiness combined with our forcing them to end sugar tariffs bankrupt the country. The small farmer was wiped out and thousands fled to the capital. This is why they have no basic infrastructure such as fire, police, emergency aid, building codes etc. because the tariff was the governments main source of income. In fact, the U.S. did a fine job of inserting a puppet government so that a real democracy would never take hold. Prior to the earthquake the unemployment rate was 70% and very few have any education.

So before you pound your chest about how great the U.S. and capitalism is to save Haiti, you may want educate yourself on the real picture. In fact, Haiti was at war with France for several years in the late 1790s to gain their freedom from slavery. France was struggling to pay for the war and reluctantly sold the Lousiana Purchase to Jefferson. So you can thank Haiti for making the U.S. stretch across the entire North American continent.

» RKV wrote on 01.17.10 @ 06:50 AM

US tariff policy is irrelevant to Haiti’s condition in a world market for sugar.  There are literally billions of other customers for sugar in the world, and while America is a close, and yes, relatively closed market because of Big Sugar, Haiti is responsible for its own destiny and has been since their independence.  Blame America first is always fashionable in the mind of leftists, and most often, wrong.  Having “no basic infrastructure such as fire, police, emergency aid, building codes etc.” is in no way a result of US policy either directly or indirectly.  It is a result of the failure of and by Haitians.  If what you said was true, then other countries in the same region would have the same problem.  Only they don’t.  The Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispanola with Haiti, does not.  In fact, it’s GDP is 7 times higher than that of Haiti on the same damn island.  So your logic is, well, flawed as a result of your Anti-American bias is the kindest way I can put it (and I can think of several other ways to describe your nonsensical left wing tripe).  This is practically a perfect lab case, and you couldn’t get it right Local.

» publius with a small p wrote on 01.17.10 @ 08:38 AM

Yes, our system is so great we rank 37th in the world in health care:
http://www.photius.com/rankings/healthranks.html

When is Jeff Harding going to tell us how much he benefitted from the $23.7 trillion bailout by taxpayers?  Good old capitalism in the US… the banks mess up, they don’t go bankrupt, and the little guy is left paying taxes to cover the $10 million bonuses of guys like Jeff Harding.

No doubt the AIG bailout and loan guarantees saved Jeff Harding’s bacon.

» Thanks local wrote on 01.17.10 @ 08:58 AM

I just knew it was George W. Bush’s fault, too.

Going forward, please understand that I automatically assume everything is the fault of America and Bush.

» RKV wrote on 01.17.10 @ 09:45 AM

The Dominican Republic right next door does not have the same problems, as much as you and the useful idiots want to blame America for the problems that others create for themselves.  Personally I think the UN should rebuild Haiti, not US.  If we’ve done such a bad job before let’s have the UNcrats show us how, like they did such a great job with Oil-for-Food.  Only let’s not send the UN extra money, they’ve got enough already.  As for the snipe on “healthcare” - such number can and are regularly faked, and if you think Cubans have better healthcare than Americans - move there.

» Ellie wrote on 01.17.10 @ 12:19 PM

That is the most absurd column I’ve ever read! Broad idealogical generalizations. Any blogger off the street can do that!

» San Roque Resident wrote on 01.17.10 @ 01:05 PM

Nice article.

Had it credited DAVID BROOKS’ original NY Times column on this subject (using the same numbers, and key metaphors) it would be even stronger.

Trying to compare how Third World, impoverished, dysfunctional Haiti responds to a
big quake with how the Bay Area did is pretty misleading.

The Spanish and French worked most of the island’s original Native American residents to death.

Then imported tens of thousands of African slaves to take their place, and never bothered to establish any semblance of national institutions or infrastructure.

The French denied basic education to most of their residents, most of whom, (without their French patois) couldn’t even understand each other’s tribal dialects.

Haiti was totally trashed by one tyrant after another, almost from the moment of its independence.

It’s also been occupied, and systematically looted, by one colonial power after
another. The most recent was ... the United States, which basically ran the place
from the time of Taft and Wilson right through the first half of FDR’s first term.

So, why should Harding [or his George Mason University friends] be surprised that
the place is still one of the Third World’s poorest, most mismanaged countries?

If Harding believes that a bigger dose of good old Milton Friedman is their answer,
will he leave his comfy Montecito digs to go live there for a couple of years, and
get rich investing in high level contracting and venture capital job creation there?

Please print his Port au Prince postcards, once he’s established there, so we can keep up with his free market adventuring there.

» Jeff Harding wrote on 01.17.10 @ 01:42 PM

I actually agree with many of the comments criticizing the role of foreign powers, including the U.S., in Haiti’s affairs.

I don’t support any kind of interference and I am opposed to Crony Capitalism (or, more preceisely, Fascism) as an economic system. Although I would say that the situation in Haiti before 1924 (per “Local”) was no different than slavery since it was much like a plantation style latifundia.

I advocate freedom for everyone. What I call “capitalism” and what you think it is are two different things. This is a more complicated topic that can be discussed here, but I believe in the Classical Liberal ideology that founded this country. I don’t believe in freedom for some; I believe in freedom for all.

My point would be that if Haiti had a free economy NOW, forgetting past injustices, it would thrive. The lack of freedom there is appalling and that’s why they will remain the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere if they don’t gain their freedom.

publius, I kind of missed your rants. You are so amusing.

And, San Roque, what are you talking about? Why the hell would I want to go to one of the least free places on earth? If I tried to set up a business there I’d be denting my pick. Why do you think Haiti is so poor? It isn’t the capitalists. Capitalists need freedom to operate. And, I’ll guess that I’ve visited more Third World countries than you, so I know what I’m talking about.

» local wrote on 01.17.10 @ 03:03 PM

RVK, it is not a theory but fact. Read the history of Haiti. Do not take my word for it. The treatment of Haiti by the U.S. and others is a major contributor to where they are today. I hope you are not one of these people without an open mind? The history of DR and other carribean countries is extremely different to Haiti. Your comparison is without merit.

» Tibor Machan wrote on 01.17.10 @ 06:11 PM

Nice write-up.  I get Cafe Hayek every day and am glad you find it valuable. I am only concerned that when you recommend Milton Friedman’s defense of capitalism you may promote his exclusively value-free approach.  Capitalism needs a normative defense, not only the positive one Friedman offers. (And, by the way, any reference to “the US Capitalism system” is all wrong since the US has never been capitalist.  It has all along been a mixed economy.

» Richard Foster wrote on 01.18.10 @ 07:57 AM

Hatiti shows what non-government regulation can bring the people. Neo-cons have said they want government so small they can “drown it in a bathtub”. 
If he were alive today,Reagan would be proud to see how Haiti is free from the onerous governmental intrusion that would have impossed restrictive building codes upon those the people.
Fifty thousand may be dead but gee, they died without the government on their backs.

» Dick Jensen wrote on 01.18.10 @ 09:44 AM

As one person observes, the reason the US withstood the Loma Prieta earthquake in the Bay Area was not because owners of capital willingly added strength to buildings or paid taxes for the services and infrastructure that supported emergency responses and life saving.

No doubt about it, people here had resources due to the bounty and creativity of our economic and political systems, but it would be pretty tough to show the connection between free-market ideas and our broadly-based survival.

(The mindless comparisons of earthquake magnitude do us a disservice. In Haiti, the quake originated “near” the surface.  The Loma Prieta quake was about 7 miles deep in the crust of the earth and of long duration, doing damage from Santa Cruz, Watsonville, and Hollister, CA north to San Francisco, the Bay Bridge, and Oakland.  The two quakes do not lend themselves to comparisons of economic systems.)

» Jeff Harding wrote on 01.18.10 @ 10:19 AM

publius, you just don’t give up. I will assume from your comment that you also benefited as a fat cat from the bailout because you don’t publish your income.

Or, are you on some kind of public welfare where your income comes from violence? The violence of taking other people’s money away from them at the point of a gun and giving it to you. And, you want me to pay for your medical care by the application of force.

And you’re wrong about U.S. health care. Those stats you mention have nothing to do with actual results because they are based on political decisions, like giving lots of point to countries with government-run health care.

Wrong again my socialist friend.

» publius with a small p wrote on 01.18.10 @ 11:56 AM

Yes, Socialist Comrade Harding, for losers it is always `The Rules are Unfair’, whether it is minority firefighters back in New England, or their ideological twins who moan and whine that the rankings of the US Healthcare are unfair.  BS.  The US simply has a crappy healthcare system and lots of people die and go bankrupt consequently, many more per year than died in the Haitian earthquake.  100,000 die each year in the US because rich stupid physicians refuse to wash there hands and follow a simple checklist!

Hey, I’m not a columnist making vast claims about the wonders of capitalism while benefitting from under-the-table socialist sucking from the taxpayers, like every single investment banker and their fellow travelers like Jeff Harding.

Enjoy your socialist-provided water, electricity, streets, firefighting, and law enforcement,  Mr. Harding.  US Capitalism also failed miserably at providing those things, 100 to 300 years ago.  And let’s not forget that US Capitalism supported white slave owners raping their black female underage slaves for the first 80 years of our republic.

Checked out your Santa Barbara County building codes lately, Mr. Harding?  Northridge earthquake lessons never were incorporated, unlike Ventura and LA County.

» Richard Foster wrote on 01.18.10 @ 01:32 PM

AN 50 seems unable to realize that a conversation can move from an economic system to political systems that often go with it.  He immediately assumes that other writers don’t know the difference and retreats to bname calling.
Nor does he seem to realize that one can see gradients in capitalism or socialism or for that matter any ism. 

He tends to see a black and white world, capitalist vs socialism, with no gradient between.  Such a limitation must give a narrow perspective to any world view.
One can believe in capitalism without believing in unbridaled capitalism, a fact wall street certainly proved when they ran to the government with there hands out.  Wall Street was far more socialistic in their behaivior when the markets moved down, than anyone I know who is taking it on the chin in the current economy which was brought to us by a political system that embraced de-regulation and an ecomnomic system that said greed is good regardless of it’s impact to the rest of the people.
PS Why not use your name?  Or is it easier to hide behind a blog name when name calling?