Aid or paychecks for Haiti?

OP-ED: Some Frank Talk About Haiti, By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF, New York Times, January 20, 2010

Interesting for the citation of Paul Collier's report to the UN that the best step forward, developmentally, in Haiti would be to set up a garment industry--meaning, in cruder terms, sweatshops.

Ah, but that would be "shock capitalism" of the Naomi Klein sort, would it not?

Better to flood the place with aid instead of paychecks.

Comments

[Michal Shapiro]

Maybe they need Walmart to move in after the debris is cleared.Would be great for Walmart's image AND bottom line.And its a lot closer than China.

[stuart abrams]

Michal:Walmart is the demand side of the equation (not much of that in Haiti). More important is that Walmart be in places like Mexico and Brazil (which it is). This requires Brazilian and Mexican entrepreneurs to search for supplies of labor cheaper than what they can find in Brazil and Mexico, so they can manufacture products that can profitably be sold to new middle-class (although still relatively poor by US standards) consumers in Brazil and Mexico. That's how you get FDI in a place like Haiti.