There are a lot of economists — many from Ivy league schools — who work hard to “improve the situation” in third world countries like Haiti. The World Bank, The IMF, plenty of other organizations. These economists have big ideas on how to make life better.
Unfortunately, these are the sorts of economists who have no grasp of “supply and demand”.
In other words, they are not really economists. They are just evil tools of Satan who want to exploit the poor people around the world. And if some of the starving kids can be distributed through child prostitution networks, so much the better.
same issues
If food must be gifted, there must be some sort of metric or algorithm that would let the aid agencies know how much can be given away directly to help the poor versus how much should be given to the Haitian farmers to subsidize what they need to sell to survive.
It could just be bad juju!
I agree that we suffer from crony capitalism but I also think that protectionism has its place.
Wouldn’t you think the geniuses from Wharton and Stanford could get together and figure out how much food grain a nation needs, subtract the amount the country can produce itself, and then supply just enough to feed the population? That would keep prices stable and still keep people from starving. Mybe even reduce the aid level by 10 percent, just to make sure the internal market remains strong.
Then work to make sure the grain gets to its intended recipients and doesn’t go into the warehouse of some tinhorn warlord.
I remember reading that foreign donors must bribe Haitian officials (?) in order to bring the donations through the ports and distribute them. If that is the case, it is another example of how foreign aid can perpetuate corruption and poverty.
I have said for a long time that we need a new model for humanitarianism. When every country we help remains poor and gets poorer we are doing something wrong.
Most times the Elites who distribute the food skim off the top and then give “aid” to relatives and friends and the poor are not benefitted but farmers and merchants lose money and slowly disappear so there is no longer an economy.
You know most of the foreign aid goes to the Elites and it seems the more we give the more we are hated.
Have relatives who are Rice farmers in Arkansas - we have so much surplus rice, the grain bins are full and there is no where to store it. Last fall at Riceland in Stuttgart, they were dumping the crop outside next to the silos. Has to be a better way to manage the situation.
Crop dumping is one of the most pernicious forms of U.S. foreign aid. Crop dumping is the transfer of massive amounts of food into an economy for free or at a below market price to feed “starving children.” The intention is lovely, but the policy carrying out the intention is abhorrent.
Thanks for showing just how the USA welfare racket works...
Wasn’t the Clinton Foundation involved in saving Haiti?
If you are going to provide food relief in a country with food shortages, you should first buy up all the locally produced food and distribute it.
That way farmers and other food producers are encouraged to keep producing, rather than being put out of business by ‘free’ food.
If the farmers go out of business, the famine will never end...