« Why capital controls are getting harder to enforce | Main | Sangam »
Port-Au-Prince
Posted by Tyler Cowen on March 29, 2008 at 07:58 AM in Current Affairs | Permalink
Comments
I am, however, still in Arizona.
Posted by: Tyler Cowen at Mar 29, 2008 9:17:13 AM
I used to live in Sierra Leone, and the photo looks remarkably similar to parts of Freetown. Only worse.
Posted by: Dennis Mangan at Mar 29, 2008 10:18:04 AM
Where have I seen that photo before?
Posted by: Mercutio at Mar 29, 2008 10:41:44 AM
Same scenes one can see in Mumbai,Kolkatta etc.
Posted by: GVV at Mar 29, 2008 11:05:27 AM
Same scenes one can see in Mumbai,Kolkatta etc.
Posted by: GVV at Mar 29, 2008 11:06:12 AM
Mercutio, the photo was on the front page of the NY Times a few weeks ago.
Posted by: Jacob at Mar 29, 2008 11:15:09 AM
Not bad enought for me, since economics still works, for sure it's could not compared to your's ideals.
Yours 2USD/days is not their 2USD/days.
Yours 3% inflattion could kill you but their 1000%inflation have nothings worth for them.
That is relativity theory of Happines.
Posted by: Mr.Beachbums at Mar 29, 2008 12:26:19 PM
Yeah, that wreaks of poverty, but can you imagine the fridge that appliance dolly was meant to carry?
Posted by: Brad Hutchings at Mar 29, 2008 1:41:26 PM
I think this needs to be explained by a nice new-Keynesian growth model.
Posted by: a young curmudgeon at Mar 29, 2008 2:09:37 PM
What those people need is more government redistribution of wealth. Mm-hmm.
Posted by: Jacob Oost at Mar 29, 2008 2:36:54 PM
cost(labor) < cost(capital)
Posted by: David Zetland at Mar 29, 2008 3:22:18 PM
You sure it's not New Orleans?
Posted by: dearieme at Mar 29, 2008 4:24:25 PM
Not sure, but I think that dolly was crafted from the rear half of a pickup truck.
Posted by: Cyrus at Mar 29, 2008 5:04:56 PM
"Deep poverty is much more picturesque than moderate poverty."
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I suppose, but if Ms. McArdle is right, then surely this must be moderate poverty. (No, I don't actually think so.)
Posted by: Peter at Mar 29, 2008 10:48:25 PM
Well, one thing you can say for Haiti is that nothing - however old, battered and useless it might seem - is wasted. A few of my own pictures of Port-au-Prince (and Haiti in general) are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/rob.fuller1/AyitiCheri
In particular, this is a nice depiction of what many Haitian people see as the source of their problems:
http://picasaweb.google.com/rob.fuller1/AyitiCheri/photo#4941399749853970450
Posted by: Rob Fuller at Mar 29, 2008 11:29:54 PM
I still have a hard time imagining Haiti's dirt cookies.
Posted by: Peter at Mar 30, 2008 12:25:57 AM
This is definitely moderate poverty. You can tell by the prevalence of goods manufactured overseas: tin roofs, car bodies, steel parts, rubber tires.
Deep poverty has none of these things. The only goods available to those in deep poverty is what they make themselves by hand. They live in grass and wood huts with thatch roofs, similar to what rich people expect to see on a private carribean beach. In contrast, the homes of those in moderate poverty look like poorly built tree houses, junk nailed together hap-hazardly.
Posted by: LoneSnark at Mar 30, 2008 12:15:33 PM
I guess that by deep poverty, McArdle meant subsistence farming and stuff on that level. The picture, for all the poverty displayed, still shows a somewhat modern economy.
Posted by: Juan at Mar 30, 2008 12:47:05 PM
Wasn't Megan McArdle's point about "deep poverty" in the economy as a whole being picturesque? On that basis, Haiti definitely qualifies: it still has a lot of elegant (but decaying) colonial architecture because nothing has been built to replace it, pristine beaches that haven't been developed, and so on.
But anyway, yes, people in the countryside in Haiti are certainly poorer on average than those in the city. According to the most recent reliable household survey, 67% in the countryside are living on less than $1 a day, compared to 23% in the capital.
Posted by: Rob Fuller at Mar 30, 2008 1:52:00 PM
"Well, one thing you can say for Haiti is that nothing - however old, battered and useless it might seem - is wasted."
While that sounds nice unfortunately pillaging isn’t always limited to someone else’s trash. In an effort to secure the evening meal, people will walk off with parts of very new, functional metal to turn it in for scrap money. Guardrails are a particular favorite for scrap. Car wheels come off nice and quietly at night, and have much higher resale value. This type of poverty, destructive poverty, is IMO the best argument for government sponsored redistribution.
.
Posted by: Mason at Apr 1, 2008 10:19:36 AM
