Great Laissez-Faire Entrepreneurial Spirit In Haiti!

[uptownlivin90]

Haiti is on the same island as the Dominican Republic. On the west end it's a 3rd world hellhole, while on the eastern side it's a somewhat developed and affluent society.

Why?...Because Haiti is a borderline communist dictatorship, whose "leadership" keeps most of the international relief money that pours into that nation, while the DR (corrupt as it may be) has a mostly market-based economic model.

Without the freedom to keep the fruits of one's labors, there is no wealth amongst the people in order to build any structure to withstand such a calamity.

For the past two decades it's been a freely elected democracy, and over the past few years under Rene Preval it's been a pretty stable one, and under Rene Preval various reforms have taken place encouraging privatization and increased economic freedoms. The economic tied in Haiti had been turning, unemployment was beginning to decrease again tourism opened up.

It's an insult to keep unfairly characterizing President Preval elected in free elections and a great friend to capitalism in Haiti a communist dictator.

 

[xotoxi]

Building codes?

Does the Constitution give the Government the authority to dictate how we are required to build our homes and businesses?

 

[mascale]

In fact, there can also be zoning!

"Crow, James Crow: Shaken, Stirred!"
(Evil government even make teepee required to connect to sewer! Need Bush to do. . . .(?)!)

 

[Oddball]

Haiti is on the same island as the Dominican Republic. On the west end it's a 3rd world hellhole, while on the eastern side it's a somewhat developed and affluent society.

Why?...Because Haiti is a borderline communist dictatorship, whose "leadership" keeps most of the international relief money that pours into that nation, while the DR (corrupt as it may be) has a mostly market-based economic model.

Without the freedom to keep the fruits of one's labors, there is no wealth amongst the people in order to build any structure to withstand such a calamity.

For the past two decades it's been a freely elected democracy, and over the past few years under Rene Preval it's been a pretty stable one, and under Rene Preval various reforms have taken place encouraging privatization and increased economic freedoms. The economic tied in Haiti had been turning, unemployment was beginning to decrease again tourism opened up.

It's an insult to keep unfairly characterizing President Preval elected in free elections and a great friend to capitalism in Haiti a communist dictator.

So are Venezuela and Afghanistan.

 

[eagleseven]

For the past two decades it's been a freely elected democracy,

If you ignore the military coups every six years, I suppose.

Over the past few years under Rene Preval it's been a pretty stable one, and under Rene Preval various reforms have taken place encouraging privatization and increased economic freedoms. The economic tied in Haiti had been turning, unemployment was beginning to decrease again tourism opened up.

Dominican Republic GDP: $4,952 per capita
Haiti GDP: $790 per capita

Haiti and the Dominican Republic are identical, with similar populations, similar resources, and they share the same island. This difference in wealth is purely because of government policy...and the sheer idiocy of Haiti's many governments.

It's an insult to keep unfairly characterizing President Preval elected in free elections and a great friend to capitalism in Haiti a communist dictator.

Preval has formed treaties and UN voting blocks with both Chavez and Castro...if the man isn't communist, he sure enjoys sleeping with communists.

Further, he has studied the Hugo Chavez School of Economics, causing a hyperinflation in 2008 that made food unaffordable, resulting in mass riots. As I mentioned above, the reason why the Dominican Republic is 5x richer than Haiti is politics.

 

[uptownlivin90]

Haiti is on the same island as the Dominican Republic. On the west end it's a 3rd world hellhole, while on the eastern side it's a somewhat developed and affluent society.

Why?...Because Haiti is a borderline communist dictatorship, whose "leadership" keeps most of the international relief money that pours into that nation, while the DR (corrupt as it may be) has a mostly market-based economic model.

Without the freedom to keep the fruits of one's labors, there is no wealth amongst the people in order to build any structure to withstand such a calamity.

For the past two decades it's been a freely elected democracy, and over the past few years under Rene Preval it's been a pretty stable one, and under Rene Preval various reforms have taken place encouraging privatization and increased economic freedoms. The economic tied in Haiti had been turning, unemployment was beginning to decrease again tourism opened up.

It's an insult to keep unfairly characterizing President Preval elected in free elections and a great friend to capitalism in Haiti a communist dictator.

So are Venezuela and Afghanistan.

What's rediculous about western attitudes toward poorer nations is our insistance that we're the only ones capable of holding fair elections and we only recognize free elections if our favored candidate wins.

 

[uptownlivin90]

Preval has formed treaties and UN voting blocks with both Chavez and Castro...if the man isn't communist, he sure enjoys sleeping with communists.

Brazil, the Dominican Republic, and plenty of other mainstream nations have been actively improving their relations with Cuba and Venezuela. Why the United States hasn't been able to put behind it foolish cold war policies that have only proven to cause unneccesary division in the America's I don't know. But Haiti chooses to work closely with all of it's neighbors, so the Hell what?

 

[georgephillip]

eagleseven:

"...the reason why the Dominican Republic is 5x richer than Haiti is politics."

Do you mean Wall Street politics?

As in Citibank politics circa 1910 when Citi went by the name City National Bank of New York and partnered with the US State Department to buy Banque Nationale d'Haiti, the country's only commercial bank and its national treasury?

Five years later President Woodrow Wilson ordered Smedley Butler and the marines to dissolve the Haitian National Assembly thereby giving American capitalists the right to buy as much Haitian real estate as they wanted.

And capitalists always want it all.

From 1915-1934 US Marines diverted 40% of Haiti's gross domestic product to US bankers.

US capitalists controlled Haiti's finances until 1947.

Effectively stealing 40% of Haiti's national wealth for 32 years.

That's not politics...it's genocide.

 

[Oddball]

What's rediculous about western attitudes toward poorer nations is our insistance that we're the only ones capable of holding fair elections and we only recognize free elections if our favored candidate wins.

Yeah, whatever.

I'm sure that Haiti being the western hemisphere's biggest welfare case has absolutely nothing to do with it, either.

 

[Contessa_Sharra]

Pat Robertson aside, there were also educated people at work in Haiti, all those years: Pre-disaster. Mostly, it is now clearly pointless to ask, "What did they know, and when did they know it." Market Intervention into building safety codes, was however: Apparently not in place! The Presbyterian Miracle of "Laissez Faire," was apparently everywhere in place!

Flawed Building Likely a Big Element - NYTimes.com

And so anyone sees what the RNC, and all conservatives, generally intend. Cynics can point to the "laissez faire" spirit in the building codes of the failed Soviet Bloc, but probably no one can explain why they should. Cynics do not point to the new lack of need for building codes in America, now that mortgages, construction, and lending have more or less ceased to exist. In fact, GOP doesn't seem to be entralled at the "laissez faire," entrepreneurial spirit in America, at all.

Mostly, anyone is led to understand that President Ronald Reagan would have loved it! Mostly, especially Hollywood didn't have to be asked!

"Crow, James Crow: Shaken, Not Stirred!"
(Great Half-Wit Father in Washington: Sent in troops, like always! United States has finally responded to the Nigerian Yemeni who flamed himself on the plane(?)! There are now humanitarian military missions in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Haiti(?)! Entrepreneurial Spirt is Strong in Great Half-Wit Father in Washington!)

Haiti, like Central America, was a victim of Cold War US politics:

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/opinion/?id=36669