Talk about wealth transfer and throwing the good after the bad.
The tragedy that is Haiti has prompted an outpouring of sympathy, cries for help and more of the same when it comes to helping poor often dysfunctional countries…send in the cash. While an array of help is needed for the immediate emergency, merely sending cash has never worked as a long term solution to poverty, and it will not work with Haiti, but that does not stop some on the left from trying. They should stop and ask what massive government spending has ever eliminated poverty, especially in a country that is corrupt and dysfunctional or better still has it even worked in the United States? A country is not poor because it lacks money; it is poor because it lacks a society that can generate money. Such a society has fundamental faults that must be corrected, often that is only possible from within and certainly not from outside intervention alone. Teach them to fish. Think of it as health care reform, bashing insurance company premiums and forcing them down does nothing to improve the fundamental faults in the health care system, but that does not stop many in Washington from pursuing that dream.
Probably most absurd example of this is found in a recent blog post by economist Jeffrey Sachs on The Cap Times, he writes in part:
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Hey, I’m an influential person and the tux is rented
The Haiti Recovery Fund should be constituted for five years — a suitable period to respond to such a challenge. Electoral politics in Haiti should be suspended for at least one year as well. This is no time for national elections; the people’s survival is the first purpose of politics.
How much money would the Haiti Recovery Fund need? And where should it come from? Here is a rough estimate: Before the earthquake but after the hurricanes, I had calculated an urgent (and unmet) development financing need of $1.4 billion per year for Haiti, up from about $300 million currently. Basic urgent reconstruction costs will add perhaps another $5 billion to $10 billion over the next few years. One can imagine annual disbursements of $2 billion to $3 billion annually over the next five years.
Obama should seek an immediate appropriation of at least $1 billion this year and next for a Haiti Recovery Fund, and ask other countries and international agencies to fill in the rest, not with promises but with cash. The obvious way for Washington to cover this new funding is by introducing special taxes on Wall Street bonuses, utterly unjustified payments that will be announced in the next days.
I added the last sentence emphasis, but I am not sure it is needed. I have an alternative, I think we should tax Conan O’Brien’s $40 million cancellation deal at 50% just like in the UK. He is being paid for doing nothing; at least those on Wall Street are doing something for their money.
This approach to providing aid reminds me of a man in New Jersey who won $5 million in the lottery and a year later was bankrupt.
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